Disclaimer:

Many stories herein are subject to the faulty, and sometimes creative, memory of the blog owner and should not be taken as factual, although the names and events are real! Kind of.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Read This Book!




The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

by Alexander McCall Smith.

It's terrific of course or I wouldn't be blogging about it! I heard about it years ago, when it first came out in 1998. But it's about a black woman who is a detective in Botswana. I'm a white girl in rural mid-America. I just didn't see that I would enjoy it that much. Not that I don't enjoy reading about new places. Not that I don't like to travel the world via the power of words. It's just that I thought I wouldn't be able to identify with a detective named Precious! But my sister gave it to me and I usually like whatever she likes so I decided to give it a try. And I'm so glad I did!

Precious Ramotswe's Daddy worked for many years in the mines of South Africa. He sent money home to Precious' mother to buy cattle, a few at a time. He came home once a year to check his holdings. He would sell off most of the calves but kept the best ones, until he had built up a large, fine herd. (Well, there you go--I'm a rancher's daughter!) All those years of working in the dusty mines ruined his lungs and eventually he dies of a lung disease. Precious is an only child and when her Daddy leaves her all his cattle, she becomes a relatively wealthy woman. On his deathbed, he tells her to sell the cattle and buy a business. Precious decides to set up a detective agency and says "It will be the best one in Botswana. The No. 1 Agency."

Business starts off slowly but gradually picks up when Precious manages to snare a few wealthy clients and she is set! Precious reveals cheating husbands, returns stolen cars, follows wayward daughters and even finds a missing husband in the belly of a crocodile. The ongoing thread throughout the book is the search for a boy who might have been snatched by a witch doctor.

So check out Precious and her No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. You'll love it. I promise!

Now I've got to go check out the public library and find the others in the series!

4 comments:

Sarah Kamolz said...

I think I will add it to my "Books I Want To Read" list. Sounds very good!

Kara said...

I just might have to add it to my list as well. I have a stack going right now...I have so much free time on my hands you know!

emmafudd said...

Yes, ma'am! I'll get my hands on a copy asap. Just so happens that I was looking for my next good read!

Becky said...

I think I listened to the latest one of these on those "play away" books at the library. I knew I needed to find the beginning of the series because, man, a lot has happened to that gal!

One Last Thought.......

Pleasant words are a honeycomb;
sweet to the soul and healing to the body.
Proverbs 16:
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