How a senior Medical lecturer at a Scottish University can write about a female detective agency in Botswana with such warmth, such skill, such characters amazes me.
The warmth and ambling read with no real pot boilers, no savage fighting, no super villains clothed in casualness, makes this read as calming as the red Leaf Tea Ma Ramotswe likes to drink to think things through. The thing is these characters are so real, that after going through a few of them, I’d like tot hink i couldf visit Botswana and go ther the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency and meet Grace, her erstwhile partner Grace Makutsi ( the now, J.B. Matakuni and Fanwell the apprentice, have some sea, maybe go out to the Children’s Orphanage from some wonderful cake and discuss the cases.
If there is a villian it is Violet Sepotho, if there is a hero it has to to be Mr. Polopetsi, this is a story about family about an adopted sister, about “not jumping the gun,” a missing sister and revenge of a mild and ingenious nature.
And for both ZMma Makutsi and Mma Ramotswe, the wise words of their mento Clovis Anderson – “the needle swings in confusing ways,” has never been more evident.
Five stars.
