18: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency: Alexander McCall Smith: ISBN 0-349-11675-X

[lnr]

Well, my mum and the anonymous commenter on a recent post were both right to recommend this. I found it a little slow to start but utterly utterly charming. Lovely characters, a nice meandering sort of plot, with lots of little mysteries solved and one bigger one running through the rest of the book. And some looking back at the past, childhood and young adulthood and the life of her father. Two generations of Africans living in Botswana, and loving their country. It's a beautiful portrait of a country, as well as of the people living there and their friends. I shall look forward to reading the sequels at some point.

Comments

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

It's a really good series, even if I did send the lady whose name we don't say a copy of 'Morality for Beautiful Girls' for Valentine's day, with no card but the inscription 'saw this and thought of you'... :)

[rmc28]

I keep being tempted by the 3-for-2 offers in bookshops that include three paperbacks by this chap, though the lack of anyone I know saying 'this is good' has aided the resistance. Maybe next month I'll give in ...