The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency

Cover Type: Softcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: None Issued
Publisher: Abacus
Publisher Place: London
Publisher Year: 2004
Edition: Reprint

Description: 250 pages. Book is in Very good condition throughout.

Publishers Description: Working in a mystery tradition that will cause genre aficionados to think of such classic sleuths as Melville Davisson Posts Uncle Abner or Robert van Guliks Judge Dee, Alexander McCall Smith creates an African detective, Precious Ramotswe, whos their full-fledged heir. Its the detective as folk hero, solving crimes through an innate, self-possessed wisdom that, combined with an understanding of human nature, invariably penetrates into the heart of a puzzle. If Miss Marple were fat and jolly and lived in Botswana-and decided to go against any conventional notion of what an unmarried woman should do, spending the money she got from selling her late fathers cattle to set up a Ladies Detective Agency-then you have an idea of how Precious sets herself up as her countrys first female detective. Once the clients start showing up on her doorstep, Precious enjoys a pleasingly successful series of cases. But the edge of the Kalahari is not St. Mary Mead, and the sign Precious orders, painted in brilliant colors, is anything but discreet. Pointing in the direction of the small building she had purchased to house her new business, it reads "THE NO. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY. FOR ALL CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS AND ENQUIRIES. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED FOR ALL PARTIES. UNDER PERSONAL MANAGEMENT. "The solutions she comes up with, whether in the case of the clinic doctor with two quite different personalities (depending on the day of the week), or the man who had joined a Christian sect and seemingly vanished, or the kidnapped boy whose bones may or may not be those in a witch doctors magic kit, are all sensible, logical, and satisfying. Smiths gently ironic tone is full of good humor towards his lively, intelligent her...

ISBN: 9780349116754