#LADIES NO 1 DETECTIVE AGENCY SERIES#
Ultimately, The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a series of rather dull adventures with a rather boring heroine. While it is relevant contextual information, it proves a large hurdle to jump at the outset. A lot of time is spent telling us about Mma Ramotswe's school days, her upbringing, her love for her country and her disastrous marriage before settling into the present world of the detective agency. However, the abduction of said child does not happen until halfway through the book and then seems to be promptly forgotten before coming back into the fold later in the story.Īnother problem is that copious amounts of background information at the beginning of the book (such as the chapter devoted to her deceased father's life story) do little to get the story going. The blurb on the back of the book would have you believe that the main plot is the solving of the mystery of a missing child. The main problem with this novel is the lack of a singular mystery to keep you gripped from start to finish.
Maybe this is a true reflection of the world of private investigations, but her mundane cases do not make for particularly exciting reading. She triumphs easily, each case being wrapped up neatly and largely without confrontation and certainly with no hint of danger. Each mystery plays out simple and straightforward and there is never any doubt that Mma Ramotswe will get to the truth. All sounds very juicy, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it isn't. The plot follows Mma Ramotswe, the only female private detective in Botswana, as she goes about her business finding missing husbands, revealing unfaithful husbands, uncovering insurance fraud and identity fraud and learning what wayward teenage daughters are up to. The people and the hot, potentially deadly environment of the Kalahari Desert did put an interesting spin on the business of solving mysteries, but it wasn't enough to mask the fact that there is a lack of excitement or suspense in this book. The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency grabbed my attention because I thought its setting in the African nation of Botswana would be refreshing compared with the common urban detective stories.
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