Customer Reviews:
 Back to the old familiar! June 16, 2008
Juliet Platt (Wiltshire, UK)
I have been a big fan of AMS Botswana series ever since the first book, and have read them all in order. I shall probably continue to do so, simply because I have become addicted to their feel-good nature and total lack of intellectual challenge. However I have to say that as the series progresses they no longer offer anything new, although Grace Makutsi makes me howl with laughter.
I was going to say that this book makes a great holiday read, though having taken days to get through it on my recent holiday to Turkey I'm going to revise that. My progress was slowed by the fact that the events around the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency this time round failed to grab my attention quite as much as people-watching on the beach or nattering by the pool, so I would instead recommend this latest for a dreary winter's night when to be reminded of sunshine, warmth and community will be a real tonic.
 Aaaaaahhhh! Like a mug of good red bush tea! March 25, 2008
MayGoodComeToUs (Rome, Lazio, ITALY)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
It is nice to see that AMS is back in his stride vis a vis the No1 Ladies Detective Agency! The last couple of the books of this series-though enjoyable as always!-have not been quite as "traditionally built" as the first few of the series, as I say in my review of "Blue Shoes and Happiness". For those who say the pace is too slow, I understand, but that is Africa...Maddening for the first while one is there and then sorely missed and grieved when one is not. For those who say the plots are predicatable, well, yes, I suppose but, to me, this is part of AMS's "genius" because what he is describing is just...LIFE. Life in Botswana, to be sure, and of a rather unusual person for her enviroment, but life noetheless. How many times have you realized that, really, your life is absolutely, marevellously exciting....to YOU, but upon reflection, is it really so to other people? Well, possibly not. But that's life! And there is something rather comforting in knowing the end of the story before one reads it sometimes. So, settle in with a cup of good red bush tea (or your equivalent) and ENJOY!
Amusing, entertaining and thought-provoking - despite a degree of predictablity March 18, 2008
Mr. Nicholas J Robertson (Kent, UK)
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
Slow paced, often predictable, repetitive, based in an imaginary, utopian version of a very small country. Not really crime fiction and certainly not thrillers. So why do I like the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency so much?
I read "The Good Husband of Zebra Drive", having realised, on buying the recently published next book in the series, and issued, that I had missed it out. My main quibble is that the denouement of this episode was itself very predictable, based I am sure on an "urban myth" or something similar - and while elements of the storyline are very predictable, I had not previously found the crux of the ending to be.
Professor McCall Smith writes unashamedly feel-good books, with a slow, measured pace and lightness of touch that makes you feel that Mma Ramotswe is leading you by the hand. The baddies, such as they are, are never really bad, and the conflicts around which the stories are based are ones between basically good people with everyday, minor flaws. I think that the intentional elements of predictability are supposed to reflect the sparsely inhabited place they are set, and the people who live there, who have lived their all their lives and are content to die there too as their ancestors did before them. Those of us who live in the West rather than in this fictional Botswana are perhaps being invited by McCall Smith to consider that our frenetic lifestyles are self-inflicted and by no means a guarantor of greater happiness.
McCall Smith was a professor of medical law and clearly has great interest in philosophy and ethics. The books are readers in practical philosophy, a commentary on the differences between man and woman and young and old, a call to live a calmer life and to treat one's fellow human being a little better. And also, despite the predictable bits, they are amusing, thought-provoking and a cracking good read.
Four stripes for the good husband of Zebra Drive. February 9, 2008
J. D. Naylor (England)
26 out of 35 found this review helpful
Alexander McCall Smith has delivered the goods yet again with another highly enjoyable addition to the No1 Ladies Detective Agency series.As always it's light on plot but takes a good natured,well intentioned and,at times,reflective look at life in Botswana.McCall Smith's background as a philosiphy writer is always evident in the way that life's everyday dilemas can be examined,considered and resolved with the minimum of fuss.Precious Ramtotswae the main character drinks more bush tea than she solves cases but this doesn't stop you from enjoying these light hearted and fun novels.His minimalist plotting style won't suit everyone but i suggest you stick with the characters,get to know them and before you know it you'll be reading all the others in the series and wanting more.At just over 200 pages long it doesn't outstay it's wellcome and can be read and enjoyed in one sitting.
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