You have to have a heart of stone to not be absolutely smitten by Mma Ramotswe of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency. She once fell in love with the wrong man, one who played the trumpet, philandered with other women, and even hit her. After that marriage dissolved, she had taken care of her loving but ailing father up until his death. Then her beloved daddy died, and she sold the cattle that he left behind, bought an office space, hired an assistant, and started the first and only ladies’ detective agency in Gaborone, Botswana. From such simple origins began one of the most heart-warming of literary characters.
Slowly, in her perceptive, undemonstrative yet confident way, she makes a success out of her detective agency. The initial cases are simple — a fake father here and a runaway husband there. Mma Ramotswe bungles a few, and is successful in others, but she never stops learning — right until she makes a reputation for herself. Then come the more interesting cases.
We have the case of the perhaps-romancing-perhaps-not daughter of one of the richest men in Botswana, who Mma Ramotswe is required to spy on; perhaps the funniest of all Mma Ramotswe’s cases. We have the incredulous case of the Nigerian doctor, who is brilliant on some days, and absolutely rubbish on others.
The last case of her first book, the case of the witch-doctor who plans a human sacrifice — is the coup de grace, a spine-chilling, heart-tugging gem. The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency narrates these detective pursuits of Mma Ramotswe, the cases she solves — large and small, sinister and simple — and her life and times in the small southern African country. You would not find detailed forensic examination, neither textbook police procedural — Mma Ramotswe solves the cases through her intuition, ingenuity and wit.
You will discover Botswana, the illness-ravaged, superstition-encrusted land, which is nonetheless kind, welcoming, and through the loving pen-pictures by the writer, beautiful. Did you know that Botswana has an HIV/AIDS epidemic that affects more than 20% of the adult population?
This is perhaps the most delightful book about a person engaged in the detective profession that you will find in a bookshelf. It trades the linear structure of a mystery book for vignettes of life in Africa. Between talking about the cases, the writer describes the land and its people as he sees it, adding to the charm of the book.
Mma Ramotswe is wise beyond her 35 years. She is content with her life, is calm, funny, loyal, and has a heart of gold. At the end of the book, when (spoiler alert) she finds love, one cannot resist cheering her on.
As a writer, one of the persistent requests you face is of book recommendations. And a common ask is for an easy-to-read, fun and yet smart book. The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency will be high in that list, for me.
Shom Biswas
Twitter@spinstripe
The writer is a business development executive in Hyderabad