Precious Ramotswe lives in Botswana, and she has a passion to help people with their problems. So, she sells her late father’s cattle and buys a little house to open up a detective agency. She has some trouble from the locals who don’t think a woman can be a good detective. But, Mma Ramotswe has human intuition and intelligence, and soon cases slowly trickle in. She usually sits down and shares redbush tea with her clients as they discuss their cases. She is soon hired to find missing husbands, to find out the creditworthiness of potential business partners, and about suspected fraud by employees. If she couldn’t find out any information to help her clients, she would waive her fee, so no one went away unsatisfied. Precious puts her skills of deduction to use in many ways; she dresses up and imitates a person of a particular profession to get suspects talking. She made up a story to tell a man (who was pretending to be a woman’s lost father), so that she could see if he would help the woman. He packed up and moved out of the woman’s house. Mme Ramotswe is very good at sizing up people, and with her intuition can tell if they are who they say they are. Interwoven with the cases she takes on, Mme Ramotswe talks much about her love for Africa, Botswana in particular. She describes where she lives and the people, giving a wonderful vision of her homeland. She also hires a secretary, Mma Makutsi, and starts dating J.L.B. Matekoni, then later marries.

Those who enjoy humour in their detective stories

I like that Botswana is described so well that I feel I am right there. The locals are so real, I can see and hear them. Precious Ramotswe is intelligent in a very quiet way; she makes a good impression on people and is hospitable as she offers redbush tea. I enjoyed the variety of cases she took on, especially the one about the missing boy she suspected of being killed by witchdoctors so his bones could be used for medicine.

Read more in the series.

Very pleasant. I laughed so much while reading this book.

The author very successfully painted a vivid picture of Gaborone, Botswana. He also created Precious Ramotswe’s character very well. And all through the book, he showed her intelligence and wisdom as she took on cases.

It is very funny. It is also entertaining and filled with simple wisdom and home-spun beliefs.

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Created Oct 31, 2024 at 10:16pm • Submit your own review...