13 June, 2003
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith (235 pp, TPB, 1998).
As far as reading's concerned, I'm in a holding pattern until the new Harry Potter comes out next week. That means: short books, comics, and/or anthologies.
This was recommended to me by Sue, who's also responsible for getting me into the Lemony Snicket books. So far, she's two for two. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is the story of Precious Ramotswe, a woman detective in Botswana. The strong points of the book are prose and atmosphere. This would be a great book to read aloud. I don't know much about Botswana, but the descriptions jibe with the stories I heard from my friends who traveled there recently, and the author lived there, so I guess it's a pretty authentic picture.
The novel is episodic, following the story of how Ramotswe came to be the only lady detective in Botswana, and several of her cases. I enjoyed the book overall, although the resolution of the final case is weak (it just comes out of nowhere), as is the final development of her personal life (highlight for spoiler):
I have no idea why she (seemingly) all of a sudden changed her mind about marrying her friend J.L.B. Matekoni. I mean, he's a nice guy and all, and a good match for her, but she was so adamant about never getting married again (and for good reason-- her first marriage was appallingly awful). I think the author should have devoted more explanation to this.
All in all, this was a fun, light read. It's too short to really be worth the $12 cover price for the trade paperback edition that's selling in bookstores, but definitely worth getting from the library.