This is the 3rd book in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. In this installment Mma Precious Ramotswe is forced to balance life with her detective work. Her Agency is not making a profit, and her fiancé Mr. Matekoni is suffering from depression. As usual, Precious faces these problems with a positive, practical attitude. She combines Mr. Matekoni's garage with her detective agency, and places her industrious assistant Mma Makutsi in charge as assistant manager. Soon enough, a client comes to ask Mma Ramotswe to investigate a possible poisoning, and while Precious is away on that case, Mma Makutsi solves another involving contestants in a beauty contest.

light reading

This is a fun read. I like to pick up these books after tackling heavier material. It's an added bonus that it take place in Botswana. Ever since Conrad's Heart of Darkness, I am a sucker for stories about Africa. This book, just like its predecessors, offers a lovely glimpse of the landscape, the people, and the culture. Mma Ramotswe represents a balance between the old traditions and the modern changes. She is "a traditionally built woman," but one proud to own her own business. The other characters are quite endearing, even as they show their biggest flaws, e.g the garage apprentices who are always flirting with girls or Mma Makutsi who has an often harsh prejudice against beautiful girls.

This book isn't a mystery. I mean, it's about a detective, but don't think that means there's going to be dead bodies and bloody evidence. In these books, I usually get a gyst of where the cases are heading before all of it is resolved. It doesn't bother me that much because the story is really focusing on other things...like how the characters react to each other, the landscape, what the moral of the story means in the culture of Botswana. I like that stuff, but be forewarned that if you're looking for a real thriller, this isn't it. In fact, in this book there's one mystery that Mma Ramotswe declines to solve by saying, "We don't want to know the answer to everything." To me, the author is saying the mystery and the answer to it aren't as important as everything else going on in the story.

Alexander McCall Smith lives in Scotland, but apparently he was born in Africa. He's taught at the University of Botswana. I'm glad he chose to write down his stories about Africa.

Sometimes it is nice to have a book that is simply light reading, so your brain can relax a bit. :)

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Created Apr 13, 2007 at 8:50pm • Submit your own review...