Precious and Grace: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (17) (No 1. Ladies' Detective Agency)

This is the seventeenth volume a very delightful series of novels set in Botswana. The detective stories are lightweight but very, very enjoyable. The characters and the venue of their episodes are interesting and unusual. How many of us have ever had (or will have) the opportunity to actually go to Southern Africa? These stories transport the reader to a very special place — a modern English-speaking country located at the edge of a desert, far from any ocean.From reading these novels, I feel as if I am actually there. I can see, feel, hear, and smell the land. No heavy literary symbolism, no subtle sub-plots, no difficult reading. No racism. No thoughts of the more complicated issues facing the larger world.These novels are a pure joy to read. They are a relaxing read. I am reading them in order of publication, and I already have next four or five on my bookshelf, waiting to be read.The author, Alexander McCall Smith, has clearly captured the feel and life of an interesting place and an interesting people.I wish that I were young enough to actually go there.

Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed by the rudeness, unthinking and unthinkable cruelties, and selfishness of the world that we live in, I like to take a break from it all by visiting Botswana. There, I can sit in the shade of a tree and drink red bush tea with Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi and listen to Precious expound on her philosophy of life and her view of what is important. For example, there is her rumination about the past:There were too many people who took the view that the past was bad, that we should rid ourselves of all traces of it as soon as possible. But the past was not bad; some of it may have been less than perfect - there had been cruelties then that we had done well to get rid of - but there had also been plenty of good things. There had been the old Botswana ways, the courtesy and the kindness; there had been the attitude that you should find time for other people and not always be in a desperate rush; there had been the belief that you should listen to other people, should talk to them rather than spending all of your time fiddling with your electronic gadgets; there had been the view that it was a good thing to sit under a tree sometimes and look up at the sky and think about cattle or pumpkins or non-electric things like that.Old Botswana ways actually sound a lot like the ways I was brought up with, and perhaps it is important, as Precious says, not to abandon all the good that existed in those ways in our rush to embrace the "new and improved" modern ways.That is the philosophy with which Precious faces life and which she tries to impart to those around her, not always successfully to the newly installed co-director of her No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Grace Makutsi.Grace is always eager to welcome modern innovations and introduce them into her life, including her workplace, sometimes at the expense of more traditional Botswana sensibilities. The "traditionally built" Precious Ramotswe is also traditional in her cautious approach to life and to her work, always weighing the effect that her words and actions may have on others. This difference in ways of thinking inevitably brings some conflicts into their relationship, conflicts which call on Precious' remarkable talents for tact and diplomacy in order to resolve them.This happens again with their latest case. A Canadian woman who was born and lived the first few years of her life in Botswana returns there and contacts the detectives to try to locate some people from her past. She wants to find the nursemaid who helped care for her and some of her childhood friends. And she wants to see the house where she and her parents lived.Unfortunately, she doesn't have much to go on. She was a child when they left Botswana and her memories are vague. Her parents are deceased and she doesn't have addresses or the full names of the people she is seeking. Precious and Grace take different views of her request and employ different tactics in fulfilling it. But in the end, somewhat surprisingly, they both get results.In addition to working on this case, life goes on and brings its daily share of mysteries and problems which Precious tries to solve. Fanwell, the tender-hearted apprentice of her mechanic husband takes on the care of a stray dog - a dog that he has no place to keep and little to feed. Of course, Precious ends up finding a home for this "orphan" dog. Meanwhile, her friend and sometime assistant, the meek and mild Mr. Polopetsi, has managed to get himself entangled in a pyramid scheme and requires the help of Precious to extricate him with his honor intact.Of course, there are regular visits with Precious' good friend, Silvia Potokwani, the director of the orphan farm, in which large quantities of Mma Potokwani's famous fruit cake are consumed and, as usual, Grace's nemesis, Violet Sepotho, is still causing her heartburn, but this time even Violet seems to be developing into a more gracious and courteous woman. Perhaps Precious is rubbing off on her.Would that she could rub off on all of us.

Its always fun to read an Alexander McCall Smith book, especially starring Precious Ramotswe. Some of it is predictable but the plot is always different and it's never too intense so it's always fun. One learns a lot about Africa and Botswana in particular. Return readers will be cheering to see all their favorite characters there, for example, Precious and Mrs. Potokwane putting their heads together to plot . Grace Makutse with her large glasses and 97% is out of control when it comes to interviews, and Fanwell brings the ugliest mutt to work hoping Precious would give the dog a job! Precious gets a case unlike any she's ever handled and Mr. Polopetsi gets taken advantage of by an unscrupulous man. The evil Violet Sephoto is up for an award and Grace and Precious have to attend the ceremony! In this world of not so happy events it's a welcome respite to delve inside the First Ladies Detective Agency for a while.

Another glorious book with so much charm, wit, and feeling. Alexander McCall Smith and his cast of characters never disappoint! I usually pass all my books on but I will not part with this set of books. A treasure!

I've enjoyed some of the books earlier in this series but this will be the last one I read. It feels like there isn't more to say or characters to develop, certainly not much at all happens in this book. There is repetition from previous books that I found tedious, it felt like page filling/padding as the story was so thin. I do like the characters but it's time for me to say goodbye.

Over the years I have amassed most of the entire series of McCall's series of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and have really enjoyed their style and atmospheric narrative. The characters are well developed, and having seen the TV film (made way back in 2008-2009), based on the original book, it is easy to 'play' the dialogue in my head. This one I didn't have in my library yet (at least I hope I don't have the hard copy!), and having downloaded it to my Kindle instead, I was fairly happy with the story development... until I got to the last few chapters. Then it bombed for me. The character of Mma Makutsi became pushy, overbearing and quite frankly objectionable, whereas Mma Ramotswe seemed to have morphed into an all-forgiving goodie-goodie, although in contrast she took no christian pity on the gullible victim of a scam, making him repay others on top of the money he himself has been cheated out of, while the real fraudster escapes any consequence for fleecing the alleged friend of Mma Ramotswe and part-time employee of the agency. That made no sense to me whatsoever, and made the whole dénouement fall completely flat. It also made the book feel a lot shorter, as though the author ran out of inspiration for a fitting ending. Really not up the usual standard.

A welcome return to a much better novel than recent offerings involving the Number 1 DA. The last few books lost the plot (pun intended) with not enough detective work and too much of the book devoted to personal actions of the characters - after all it is supposed to be about a detective agency. Not as good as the initial books within the series but a step in the right direction.

Although I really enjoy the number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, and have read all the books so far, this one wasn't quite up to the usual standard. It was a good read, they always are, but I thought it seemed rather short and also a bit 'preachy', harping on rather a lot about forgiveness. But still an enjoyable book.

These books are still readable but not nearly as good as earlier ones in the series, nothing changes, the characters do not improve with age ! and as for Mma Makutsi, she is getting boring now.