The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

Although I have read many detective books, none of them are nearly as amusing and down-to-heart as ‘The No. 1 Ladies detective Agency’ by Alexander McCall Smith. Set in Gaborone, Botswana, this book tells the story of a traditionally-built woman running her own detective agency.

The characters are described in depth and have unique personalities and thoughts. Maa Ramatswe is a clever and intelligent detective who started her own agency from scratch. She is the main character. Maa Makutsi is the agency’s proud and focused secretary. Mr. JLB Matekoni is the thoughtful and caring owner of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. There are two mindless apprentices that work for him, Charlie and Fanwell. They are known to think about girls instead of following Mr. JLB Matekoni’s directions.

In this book alone, there are five detective cases. However, there are many more books in the series. There are two missing people cases, an eleven-year-old boy and a husband. The boy was supposedly snatched up by witch doctors and the husband was suspected to have run off with another woman. There is also a case where Maa Ramatswe returns a car to it’s owner in the dead of night. The last case is of a wayward daughter, Nandira, who is suspected by her father to be seeing a boy in secret.

My favorite parts were the in-depth thoughts and the multiple cases. The in-depth thoughts are in the perspective of many different characters but mainly Maa Ramatswe. They provide descriptions of people that have just been introduced to the story as well as a background story. The cases are unique and different that in any other detective book. They all involve personal investigation by Maa Ramatswe and pull new characters into the book.

‘The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency’ is an interesting and gripping detective book. Mma Ramotswe provides observations on the qualities of Botswana : the culture, traditions, and the natural beauties. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy detective stories with a twist.