Bokrecension: The No. 1 Ladies´ Detective Agency av Alexander McCall Smith

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The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency



Written by: Alexander McCall Smith

Preciuos Ramotswe has inherit money from her dear Daddy, who wanted that his daughter to open a business. She used the money to start an own ladies detective agency, and she was sure that her father would not have mind that at all. As the matter of fact, he would be proud. Her agency consist of an office, a secretary, an old typewriter and three jugs, one for her self, one for her secratary and one for the client.

This lady detective, called Mma Ramotwe, is a 35-year-old fat african, and very proud of it too. In Africa is it status to be big, comparing to Europe. She had a husband before but he was no good to her, exactly what her father had told her. Now she lived a secluded life and felt very comfortable with this situation. She has everything she want, an own house in Zebra Drive in Botswana, a lot of plants and herbs and an exciting job.

At first the business did not go any good. Many people did not believe that a woman could be a detective. Her first client came after some weeks and it was a woman who was missing her husband.

“ The wives of missing men are all the same, thought Mma Ramotswe. At first they feel anxiety, and are convinced that something dreadful has happened. Then doubt begins to creep in, and they wonder whether he´s gone off with another woman (which he usual has), and then finally they become angry. At the anger stage, most of them don´t want him back any more, even if he´s found. They just want to have a good chance to shout at him.”

When the agency had begin to be a paying concern, Mma Ramotswe gets a letter from a teacher who lives a couple of miles from Botswana. He wrote that his son was missing and he did not know what to do. He had no money so he could not pay her, but he hoped that she would help him find his son anyway. She knew what had happend to the boy, it was very usually. This was the only reason she was ashamed for her country. Witchdoctors. They used to kidnap childen and make frightful experiments on them. Mma Ramotswe felt sorry for the man but could not help him, at least not now. The agency was going well and she had no time to search for this boy.

In the meantime Mma Ramotswe was solving a mission she had got from her dearest friend Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. He was also a friend to her father when he was alive. When Mr Ramotswe was sick, Mr Matekoni helpt Mma Ramotswe a lot and she is very greatful for that. One thing Precious do not know about Mr Matekoni is that he wants her to marry him.

After Mma Ramotswe had solve the case, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni proposed to her.

“Then he rose to his feet. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni was a tall man, and he had to be careful not to bump his head when he stood erect. Now, with the calendar behind him and the fly paper dangling down from the ceiling above, he cleared his throat and spoke.
´ I would like you to marry me,´he said. ´That would not be a mistake.´
Mma Ramotswe hid her surprise. She did not give it a start, nor drop her jug of tea, nor open her mouth and make no sound. She smiled instead, and stared at her friend.

´You are a good man,´she said. ´You are like my Daddy... a bit. But I can not get married again. Ever. I am happy as I am. I have got the agency, and the house. My life is full.´”
One day Mr Matekoni finds a bag in the desert. When he opens the bag there is a bone in it, a human bone. Immediately he goes to Mma Ramotswe. She got to do something. This is the witchdoctor´s deed, she knows it.

Mma Ramotswe could not stop thinking about that little boy who had been kidnapped. She decided to solve this, or at least find his murderer.

She visits a friend of hers who is a doctor. He tells her all he can about this human leg, that it had lain in the bag for about 1-3 mounths and that the bone belong to a 9-year-old child.

After many visits to different important people, Mma Ramotswe finds the witchdoctor who had taken the teachers´ son and finds out that the boy is not dead. She rescues the boy and drive him carefuly back home to his dad.


“She went out to see wether Mr J.L.B. Matekoni needed more light. He was standing beside the little white van, wiping his hand on a lint. ´That should be fine now, ´he said. ´I’ve tuned it up and the engine runs sweetly. Like a bee.´ She clapped her hands in pleasure.“

“He follewed her inside. She poured him a beer and they went together to her favourite place to ist, on the varandah, near the bougainvillaea. He looked at her in the darkness, at this woman who was everything to him – mother, Africa, wisdom, understanding, good things to eat, pumpkins, chicken, the smell of sweet cattle breath, the white sky across the endless, endless bush, and the giraffe that cried, giving its tears for women to daub on their baskets; O Botswana, my country, my place.
This was his words, but how could he say any of that to her? He simply said: I am very happy sitting here with you...´ She turned to him. ´What did you say?´
´I said, please marry me, Mma Ramotswe. I am just Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, that´s all, but please marry me and make me happy.´
´Of course I will, ´said Mma Ramotswe.”


The books’ titel is The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and you can absolutely say that this gives you a clue about what this book is about. Me, personally, don´t think that this book was that good. It´s not my type of book, I prefer novels.

When it comes to the author´s writing style you observe that it is a man who has written this. He is writing about a woman, but never tells us anything about her feelings for different t...