"A Delightful New Detective"

Mma Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's only female private investigator, should probably have called her agency "No. 1 Lady's," since she's its sole operative. But apart from that grammatical slip, she doesn't miss a trick. A "traditionally built" (read: stout) person creeping up on 40, she decides to enter this field with the money she gains from the sale of her father's cattle after his death. With little more than a desk, a telephone, a typewriter, a small white van, her cleverness and common sense, her loyal secretary Mma Makutsi (who graduated the Botswana College of Secretarial and Office Skills with an average grade of 97%), and the occasional assistance of her good friend, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, owner of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, she solves cases that range from a freeloading con artist who has tricked an honest woman into believing he is her father, to the abduction for sinister purposes of a young boy by native witch doctors--who have a connection to a very prominent citizen.

Smith clearly knows the country and people of which he writes, and succeeds in giving his story a lilting, lyrical flavor that makes the reader feel almost as if she is listening to a story being spun by a native tale-teller. This first of the series bodes well for volumes to follow.

Reviewed by Christine Jeffords
Posted October 4, 2002