This is the fifteenth book in The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.Alexander McCall Smith takes us to charming old-world Botswana where everything and nothing really happens.We find Botswana's well-acclaimed and only lady detective Precious Ramotswe investigating a case of an Indian woman who is suffering from amnesia and cannot remember who she is or where she comes from.She is helped by a fellow Indian Mr Sengupta who along with his sister Miss Rose decide to take her in,however owing to immigration problems they need to know the identity of this lady and decide to hand the case over to Mme Ramotswe.
Meanwhile Mr J L B Matekoni,the great mechanic and owner of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors is facing the turmoil of making a difficult decision in order to save his Garage.As if this wasn't enough Grace Makutsi secretary par excellence,having scored the unattainable 97% has ventured into new territory by opening the Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe.She is faced with early staffing problems but refuses to pay heed to anyone's advice including her shoes(yes she imagines that her shoes talk to her) leading to disastrous consequences which are further worsened when Violet Sephotho self proclaimed food critic ,reviews the cafe.However nothing ever goes wrong in Smith's Botswana and how everything eventually gets sorted is what the story is all about.
My Views : I am a huge fan of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series and this is my fifteenth book.I am utterly charmed by the simplicity of the setting as well as the characters so much so that I have grown very fond of them.It was delightful to read about the old favorites Mme Ramotswe,Mme Makutsi,Mr J L B Matekoni,Charlie.Smith also introduces recurring character very briefly and one fondly remembers reading about them in previous books too.Nothing dramatic really happens in these books and that is exactly what makes them so charming .The stories are always fairly simple with many laugh out loud moments in them and everything falls in place at the end,with valuable lessons learnt along the way.Simple observations like this one"If you wanted to know what people would actually do,then the only way of finding out was by watching them and seeing what they did.Then you would know what they might do in the future-because most people did what they had always done."or when Mr J L B Matekoni talks about refusing to change for the sake of modernity-"We want to stay exactly where we are,because there is nothing wrong with that place.That place is the place we have always been,and if you think that where you have been is where you should be,then why go to another place that you do not know at all and may not be as good as the place you were in before somebody came along and said to you that you must go forwards-which is not what you wanted to do?"These lines really did stay with me.This book is a delightful read and I am eagerly awaiting the next one.
My Rating 4 out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment