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The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency tells the story of Mma Precious Ramotswe as she establishes the first (and only) female owned and operated private detective agency in all of Botswana. Mma Ramotswe floats from case to case, finding missing and/or cheating husbands, tracking down stolen property, turning down marriage proposals, and doing all of the things that you'd expect from a Botswanan female private eye.
Judging from its high sales figures, the fact that it is first in a series, and the rave reviews over at Amazon, this is a well-liked book. However, I have (at best) mixed feelings about it. On the plus side, I enjoy books that give a good feel for what it is like to live at a certain time or place. This book does do a good job of that, giving the reader a real feel for the day-to-day life of a small businesswoman in present-day Botswana.
Unfortunately, there is not much plot here. Most of the cases are independent "morality plays" (if that is the correct term). Mma Ramotswe uses her superior understanding of human motives, or her superior intellect, or her superior bulk to solve the case and show that lying, cheating, stealing, or leaving your wife and going off to join a religious sect(!) doesn't pay. There were tantalizing hints that there might be some main story-line coming together, but it never really came to fruition.
This isn't a bad book. If you are looking for something to pick up in an airport to read on a flight or something, you can certainly do worse. Plus, for the non-Botswanan among us, the look at life in a new country is certainly a plus. I feel like I'm being picky, but the lack of a plot is holding back my rating. I'll give it two stars out of five, with the caveat that for a two-star book, it's really quite good.
1 comment:
I loved this whole series. The books are not deep and do not have much plot, but they are rich with life-rich with a joy of life that is missing in American life today.
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