The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Book 1)

English language

Published April 22, 2003

ISBN:
978-1-4000-3477-2
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4 stars (1 review)

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is the first detective novel in the eponymous series by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith, first published in 1998. The novel introduces the Motswana Mma Precious Ramotswe, who begins the first detective agency in Botswana, in the capital city Gaborone, after her beloved father dies. She hires a secretary and solves cases for her clients. Precious tells her own story, from birth, and her father tells his story. When her father dies, she moves from Mochudi to Gaborone, the capital city, to begin her detective agency. She solves three cases, and meets important new people, her secretary Grace Makutsi and good friend, the excellent mechanic, Mr JLB Matekoni. The novel was first published in Scotland, where it gained a following. After two more novels in the series were published, all three were published in the US to much acclaim; in 2002, for example, Publishers …

2 editions

Disjointed but worthwhile

4 stars

I read this popular mystery novel prior to visiting Botswana with the idea of getting a little bit of insight into the people and places I would be visiting. The caveats of doing so were many: I hoped that my trip would not be filled with mystery, I was aware that the author was a white man from Scotland writing about an Africa and an African woman, and it’s fiction. Still, I found it rewarding and was happy to find out from some of the people we met in Botswana that the book and series (and TV series adapted from the books) are viewed positively by most of the local population.

Part of the criticism of the book (and perhaps the series) is that Smith’s portrayal of Botswana sugarcoats the more negative aspects of the country and the legacy of colonialism. His response, as expressed in an introduction to this …