Precious and Grace

Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi have been working together at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency for several years now. Over that time, Mma Makutsi has gone from secretary to co-director, largely through her own determination and assertiveness. Charlie, originally one of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's apprentices, has been let go from that position, and is now Mma Ramotswe's very part-time assistant--and is starting, at last, to grow up. Fanwell, the other apprentice, is on track to be a qualified mechanic, and is also maturing. Mr. Polopetsi is a volunteer part-time assistant, contributing his special skills when he's needed and not filling in as a chemistry teacher in the schools. Then one day Mma Ramotswe finds out from her friend Mma show more Potokwani, matron of the orphan farm, that Mr. Polopetsi has a new money-making business scheme, the Fat Cattle Club, which sounds very much like a pyramid scheme. She's got to find out what's really going on before he gets himself into serious trouble.

A new client also appears, a Canadian woman named Susan Peters, who spent part of her childhood in Botswana, and would like to find her old home, and her old nursemaid. She paints an idyllic picture of her memories of her early years there, and Mma Ramotswe is happy to help her.

As always, this is a slower-moving, quiet story, more focused on the characters and relationships than intense mystery-solving. It's what I love about these books, and why they remain popular after seventeen entries in the series. Mma Ramotswe is wise and kind but not infallible; Mma Makutsi is difficult, often insecure and suspicious, but ultimately loyal and sound.

I love these books for their gentleness, their character development, and the recognition that people can be good even though we're all flawed.

Recommended.

I bought this book. show less

The theme of finding home runs through Alexander McCall Smith's “Precious and Grace” (2016), the 17th volume in his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. So does forgiveness, or the need for forgiveness as much for the wronged as for the one who did the wrong.

This may sound like heavy stuff for a novel that seems light and fluffy when you are reading it, but that is often the case with McCall Smith's novels. There's usually a hard nut or two somewhere in his creamy mixture of chocolate and peanut butter.

A Canadian woman named Susan who spent her girlhood in Botswana comes to the detective agency asking Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi to find the house where she once lived and, in particular, the woman who cared for her, someone show more named Rosie.

Meanwhile Fanwell, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's apprentice mechanic, returns with a stray dog. That dog, it turns out, needs a home even more than Susan does, thus giving Precious two assignments, even if only one has a fee involved.

Finding Rosie and the place where Susan grew up turn out to be relatively easy, even if the task does involve a close call with a poisonous snake. The real challenge becomes discovering why this woman wants to find Rosie and what she plans to do after she does.

What's really needed, Precious decides, is not reunion but forgiveness. Forgiveness is grace, and grace is a very precious thing. show less

Digital audiobook performed by Lisette Lecat

Book # 17 in the hugely popular “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” series, has Mma Precious Ramotswe and her “co-director” Mma Grace Makutsi at loggerheads once again over updating office practices vs relying on tried and true methods. This time their cases include a Canadian woman, originally raised in Botswana, who wants to reconnect with her nanny, and a closer-to-home case involving a Ponzi scheme. Then there’s the stray dog than Fanwell has brought to the agency.

I love this series. I enjoy spending time with these people, though I rather missed Mr J L B Matekoni who barely appears in this episode. Mma Ramotswe can always be relied upon to consider carefully the underlying motives show more and various options for dealing with any problem. While Mma Makutsi is frequently the one to rush forward, perhaps jumping to the wrong conclusion, or arriving at the right answer but for the wrong reason!

Lisette Lecat does a marvelous job of performing the audio books. She brings these characters to life. 5* for her performance! show less

These books really are the reading equivalent of comfort food. I met someone today who told me that she had "never been able to get on with them." I was surprised because for me it is the opposite: I always expect to enjoy them. They are not deep mysteries but the situations depicted them show an incredible understanding of what makes people tick, and the solutions are dispensed with just a touch of philosophy.

There are reminders always that the setting is not the West, but Botswana, a country struggling to find its place in the 21st century. Technology is changing the world. Even Precious Ramotswe's husband Mr. J.L.B Matekone comments on how much cars have changed, making them so difficult for him to repair.

Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi show more are now co-directors of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and that situation breeds its own frictions, and I enjoyed their interaction.

So if you haven't ever read these, and would like something light and cozy to read, give this series a try. But I would advise starting at the beginning. show less

I saved this book carefully. And December 2017 was the perfect time to read it. It's a delightful cocktail of the expected and the (slightly) unexpected. The intersection of canny and naive is an odd place to sit but that's Mr. McCall Smith's favorite spot. Here's to the joy of friendships and small mysteries.

I enjoyed this book as I do all of the author's books, but not as much as some of the others in this series. Mma Makutsi kind of annoyed me in this book, but I guess she was just being herself. I felt scared for Precious when she got bit by the snake, but also chided her for not changing the batteries in her flashlight. I guess the author didn't want to stop the series yet.

In this, the 17th book in a series that began with The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Botswana’s sole detective, Precious Ramotswe, is faced with two difficult assignments: to hunt down the African nursemaid of a white woman who was born in Botswana but returned to Canada with her Canadian aid worker parents as a young child, and to get to the bottom of an apparent Ponzi scheme which has ensnared the hard-working but naïve Mr. Polopetsi, high-school chemistry teacher and part-time employee at the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

My sister-in-law and I impatiently await each new volume in this series, and Precious and Grace lived up to the anticipation. All the old favorites make an appearance: Precious’ kind and loyal husband, Mr. show more J.L.B. Matekoni, Silvia Potokwani, the redoubtable matron of the orphan farm; Charlie and Fanwell, the garage’s one-time apprentices; and, of course, Grace Makutsi, the determined and proud recipient of the Botswana Secretarial College’s 97 percent distinction, now a wife, mother, and agency co-director. Rounding out the novel are Grace’s memories of her late father, the long-suffering and wise Obed Ramotswe, and an encounter with Grace’s nemesis Violet Sepotho, who is up to yet more mischief.

As always, the best way to savor Mma Ramotswe’s adventures is by listening to the audiobook narrated by Lissette Lecat —always a treat! show less