Critical Mick

Reviews Free of Rules.

Reviews by the Clown that All Other Critics Want to Strangle with a Black Turtleneck

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Alexander McCall Smith
Abacus, 2003

I Like Big Bots And I Cannot Lie

Man! It's been a while since I slammed anything. Nothing that I have read lately has deserved it, though. And, as Richard Cheese so wisely reaffirmed Agent Felix, who so boldly quoted Sir Mix-a-Lot--- I cannot lie. Honest opinions follow.

Africa's landlocked success story, the young diamond-rich nation of Botswana serves as the colorful setting for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by University of Edinburgh professor Alexander McCall Smith. The author was born in neighboring Zimbabwe, and builds his stories around the "small, everyday Botswana that the tourist doesn't get to see."

Specifically, around the character of Mma Precious Ramotswe. Instead of using her father's inheritance to establish a store, she becomes the country's first female private eye. To her thinking, this makes perfect sense. Though men have the power, it is always women who know what's going on in African society.

The cases solved by Mma Ramotswe's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency read more like a collection of charming, interconnected anecdotes than a novel. Specific episodes illustrate the way to track down a missing husband, the way to trap a cheating husband, the way to return a car stolen by a dishonest husband, the way to smoke out a false daddy, then a false doctor, then the way to uncover a witch doctor... in fact, the only decent, independent man in the book (other than Mma Ramotswe's dead father) is her love interest, local auto mechanic Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. Though The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a gentle, enjoyable journey, that sexism pissed me off a bit. That and the fact that Mma Ramotswe is never wrong.

In short order, the interconnecting mystery is solved and all ends well. Though there are a few references to domestic violence and bonking, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency does not contain any material that is particularly dark, tense or scary. It's suitable for almost all audiences who enjoy a good yarn and love being transported to a different world.

I have a feeling that many The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency readers will wish to know more about Botswana. Others may just be confused by some of the terms used by the characters in the novel. As a further Critical Mick public service to the whirled of literature, here is a short glossary of terms used in that Southern African nation:

Here's the link to the excellent website that I ripped most of that off of. The map is also illuminative.

To further help illustrate the novel, here is a shattered windscreen like the one featured in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. (Click for a larger version)

Here is the tiny white van (another The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency staple) which came around to replace it:

Weird the way life imitates art.

Alexander McCall Smith has more books to his name than a wildebeest has fleas. Since Mma Precious Ramotswe first appeared in 1998, five more novels of the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series have followed, plus the re-issue of a collection of African-set short stories. The seventh novel, Blue Shoes and Happiness, will be published this year. Critical Mick says: check some of his stuff out! Check out Botswana, too. It sounds like a groovy place to visit.

The Grateful Dead have their deadheads. Richard Cheese has his dickheads. That explains what all those people keep calling me!

Yo! This review and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2006 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

Irate, huh? Managed to piss off another one? Direct your hatemail to mick @ mickhalpin dot com.

This Page Was Last Updated On 20 January, 2007.