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The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency / 1 May 2008

The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
By Alexander McCall Smith

The book is about a fat detective lady, Mma Ramotswe , who had a private detective agency in Gaborone, Botswana, Southern Africa. Botswana is a good country where people have freedom and peace in their life and it has a lot of diamonds and cattle. But in the normal daily lives of Botswana people still have their own problems and they really wanted to find out about that so they came to the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency to make enquiries.

Mma Ramotswe was the only one lady private detective in the country. She was smart, sharp and dared to do things even if it was very dangerous for her life and dared to be different in her own ways. She had a beautiful life when she was young with her good father, Obed Ramotswe, and smart aunt who gave her a good upbringing and that gave her a strong mind. Her nightmare marriage made her careful about things in her life.

Mma Ramotswe ended up with her own business, the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, by her curiosity with things and she also got quite a lot of money from selling the cattle of her father who had worked hard in the mines and saved all the money to buy cattle. On the edge of the town, a colorful sign painted with “THE NO.1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY. FOR ALL CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS AND ENQUIRIES. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED FOR ALL PARTIES. UNDER PERSONAL MANAGEMENT”, was set up and pointed to the small building. It was a slow start with unforeseen demands on the business but then it surprised her with sufficient commissions to move on.

The first client, Mma Malatsi, came in the office to consult about her missing husband that was involved with a Christian group. Mma Ramotswe really enjoyed her first solution and it gave some hope to her business. The African tradition of support for relatives made Happy Bapetsi unhappy and she thought the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency could help her. The missing son of the teacher at Katsana pulled her to face the most powerful person, Mr. Charlie Gotso, in the country and the witchdoctor. She was in unsafe situations but she was not afraid to investigate.

Mr. Patel was rich but he also needed help from the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency to find out about his daughter’s life, Nandira. Instead of fee, “You fat bitch!” was the word that Mma Ramotswe got from the client, Alice Busang, who was suspicious of the handsome husband, Mr. Kremlin Busang. Hector Frowned who owned a factory and had asked to marry Mma Ramotswe, suspected his employee was a fraud to get money from cutting fingers and the No.1 Ladies’ Detective was asked to discover it. Mma Ramotswe’s old friend, Dr. Maketsi, was worried about a young doctor, Dr. Komoti, who had two different personalities and the investigation was out of the country. All of the cases showed how incredible procedures she used to enquire.

Mma Ramotswe lived alone but she was not lonely because she had a good friend like Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, who was comfortable and a proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. Mma Ramotswe had Mma Makutsi as a secretary and good contacts with many people that she could ask for some support for her job also. The business moved on to discover things for her own people in the country that she loved.

In my opinion, this book also tells about facts of history, life and the surroundings of Botswana quite well and there is much about relationships between people in the story. The cases they wanted the detective to find out about were from the problems in family to the problems of the country. Both small and big problems could be solved if they came to the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

The writing style of the author is very interesting to follow and it made me curious while I was reading and I wanted to read more and more to see what the solutions will be. I really enjoyed this book. It was exciting. The ends of the stories were unexpected and exciting and I could not guess about detective procedures and the solutions, for example the case of the missing son and the handsome husband.

I like the happy ending of this book and it made me want to read the second book. I thought.”How will the funny or difficult cases, effective procedures and solutions be in the next book?”

Every solution was clear. I did not have to think or guess for the rest. I am a curious girl so I want everything to be clear in the end. I was also surprised about the solutions for example the case of the missing husband. The story made me think that guy was lost by a fast strong water stream, not the crocodile.

I really like the main character, Mma Ramotswe, because her young life reminded me of my young life in my home village and the relationship between my father and me. I thought of my father while I was reading the book. Obed Ramotswe had similar attitudes and thoughts as my father. He gave me freedom even if he really did not want. He loved me and took a good care by his advice and so on.

I was also very curious just like Mma Ramotswe. I was a reporter and my curiosity gave me good articles. When Mma Ramotswe asked for information from her clients, she was similar to when I interviewed someone for writing articles.

For me, it is really hard to find a book that is exciting. Of course, many books about detectives are exciting but I think not all of them can remind me of my own life and hit my heart like this. This book gave me a lot of pleasure.

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By Yui in Lund, Sweden : May 1st, 2008