Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Going back to Botswana...with the No. 1 Ladies Detective...


Dumela Mma…Dumela Rra…

I was back in Botswana for the last two weeks…reading four more novels in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series written by Alexander McCall Smith and catching up with the redoubtable detective Precious Ramotswe, her assistant detective Grace Makutsi, Mma Ramotswe’s long-time fiancé and now husband Mr J. L. B. Matekoni, the owner of Speedy Motors, his two wayward apprentices, the matron of the orphan farm, the formidable Mma Potokwani…and so many other lively people out there in Botswana…

In one of my previous posts, I had written about my first tryst with this series…I had bought and read five novels in this series (separately, not in one go…) and it was so loooonnnng ago…

Though the cases in the novels are not interlinked, and each novel stands on its own, there is a continuity on terms of the lives of the main characters that connects one novel to the next in the series.  I realised this when I read In the Company of Cheerful Ladies and discovered that Precious Ramotswe and Mr J. L. B. Matekoni are married.  I knew that they were engaged for a long time, but didn’t know when they got married.  I searched around and found a chronological list and then I saw I had read the sixth in the series (In the Company of Cheerful Ladies) and had missed reading the fifth The Full Cupboard of Life (I didn’t have therefore, couldn’t read!!!)…

I wanted to fill this gap and thought its been a long time since I visited Botswana and spent time in the company of the cheerful ladies…and other gentle people who make this series come alive.  I went to my trustworthy and favourite online store www.indiaplaza.com and placed orders for The Full Cupboard of Life, Blue Shoes and Happiness, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, and The Miracle at Speedy Motors…I received these 4 novels in 2 instalments and I finished them off one by one…like a famished reader…



Precious Ramotswe, the lady detective, is in top form and so is her assistant Grace Makutsi…and others…and more than crime solving it is the life in Botswana, with its gentleness and unhurried pace and change of seasons and nice people and cattle, that attracted me…these novels are a leisurely read… for Mma Ramotswe no problem is too big not to have a solution and a steaming cup of bush tea is all she needs for her brain to start ticking furiously…

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