funny

Mma Ramotswe finds herself in financial difficulty in the third installment of this popular series.

The No. One Ladies' Detective Agency books are all quick, charming reads in which Alexander McCall Smith's love of Africa shines through on every page, but I'm sorry to say that they're also rather sameish.

This one does have a lot going on. We've got a financial worries storyline, a revamping the garage storyline, a beauty pageant storyline, an alleged poisoning storyline, and a depression storyline, plus some stuff about a boy raised by lions. Sounds exciting, I know, but none of the storylines really get enough screen time. Mma Ramotswe is having money troubles. McCall Smith mentions them, provides her with a couple of possible solutions, and drops the issue. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni is depressed. We hear very little about it... and then the book ends. Mma Makutsi's improvements to the garage get a little bit more attention, but her investigation into the pageant contestants is quite brief and rather unsatisfying. Ditto for Mma Ramotswe's poisoning case. The lion boy is set up as an important mystery, but his story is never dealt with in any depth or properly resolved.

The book is charming and sweet, and McCall Smith's affection for his characters and for Botswana itself makes the story a joy to read. But it's nothing of any great consequence; it's pleasant, but ultimately unmemorable. There are lots of bits and pieces, but nothing is really deep enough to hold my attention. I decided after the second book that I'd start passing the series along if the third one didn't push things forward in a pretty big way. I'll continue to read the series, but it looks like they'll be heading to Cover to Cover instead of joining my permanent collection.

(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

The third book in this series is no disappointment, and is possibly my favourite one yet. In this episode of Mma Ramotswe's life, she finds herself moving her offices so that she is sharing premises with her fiance Mr J L B Matekoni, meaning that her business and his garage are at the same place. However, all is not well with Mr J L B Matekoni, and Mma Ramotswe is anxious about his health.

However, she still finds time to investigate a case of suspected poisoning, while her Assistant Detective Mma Makutsi, finds herself being the sole investigator in a case concerning the contestants of a beauty pageant.

This book, like the others before it, is a charming easy read. McCall Smith must have a deep affection for Botswana, as he writes about it with tenderness here. Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi and Mr J L B Matekoni are lovely characters to curl up with for a couple of hours. ( )

Once more we are given the pleasure of getting inside the minds of an interesting array of citizens of Botswana as they consider not only the passing scene, but also the deeper issues of life in general. The ladies of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency are called upon to deal with unusual cases reflective of the culture of Botswana. We see the two ladies using their considerable intelligence as well as their cultural savvy to solve the often delicate problems. Moral dilemmas are the order of the day in Alexander McCall's books and he uses a common sense approach in his deliberations of issues. Forinstance there is an interesting discussion on procrastintion in this book. Mma Ramotswe discusses with a friend that procrastination is not a good thing, but the problem was that even if you knew what to do, you don't choose to do it. "It is as if there were two people inside you. One says do this and one says do that. But both voices are inside the same person," said Mma Ramotswe. All is written with gentle humor and outstanding character development. ( )

These stories grow on you, they remind me somehow of The Mitford Series by Jan Karon, only simpler. ( )