The New No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency The Limpo Academy of Private Detection
by: Alexander McCall Smith
hardback 257 pages
2012
I just now realize that i have skipped a few mysteries in the detective series written by Alexander McCall, for i was at the library and thought i reading a book about Africa would be nice as i seek to picture Sofi living there. I found the No.1 Ladies Detective Series but because I was without my glasses a could not tell which one was next for me to read. The Green book looked good so i chose this one and right away i was transported back to an Africa that i have never been but one that i had read of in Thailand when i first was introduced to these delightful books.
Life goes at a slow pace and it is easy to get into step with Mma Romostwe and those in her life in Botswana. The biggest news is that Mma Makutsi is now married (that may have happened in the book called The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party) and she and her husband are building a home. The matron of the orphanage, Mma Potokwane has been forced out of her role...there is a need for a detective here and how wonderful for the author of the "bible" of private detection, Clovis Andersen, to have arrived in Botswana and to be involved with the progress.
i always learn a new word or two when i read the detection stories as Alexander McCall does a wonderful job in creating Africa in his descriptions and in using a few local words to add to the flavor of all the bush tea that gets consumed through the pages of the mysteries as they are solved. "Pula, pula,pula!" is what i learned this time and as page 187 tells, it "is the cry of triumph, of joy, that was universal in Botswana. It mean rain, rain, rain,--just the right cry for a dry country that lived for the day that the first life-giving rains arrived-- that day of ominous purple skies, and heat, and the wind that precedes the first drops of water spattering on dancing on the baked ground."
Another great read, not too ambitious, but with good insight to human character as seen through the eyes of a traditionally built woman who has a heart as big as the country.
in my opinion, the books do not need to be read in order, for each story gives enough detail for you to enjoy it on its own and each has a satisfactory conclusion. For a closing remark i will quote Mma Romostwe's thoughts on friendship, "New friendships can be every bit as strong as old friendships, and of course became old friendships in due course."
These books are like spending time with a good friend.
