The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Alexander McCall Smith

This was funny and touching and beautiful. I wanted to meet these wonderful people with whom I felt I had experienced life in Botswana; I wanted to drink some redbush tea on the verandah, and to drive out into the wonderful empty expanses of Africa. The crimes are minor and Precious Ramotswe is no cerebral detective but she knows how to enjoy life - a really enchanting book.

Extract
But what about the crocodile and the baptism, and the other sinners? No, she must be innocent. Perhaps she wanted him dead, and then her prayer was answered by the crocodile. Would that make you a murderer in God's eyes if something then happened? God would know, you see, that you had wanted somebody dead because there are no secrets that you can keep from God. Everybody knew that.

She stopped. It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin.

Parallels
  • Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
  • Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie