July 2001: Working in a
mystery tradition that will cause genre aficionados to think of
such classic sleuths as Melville Davisson Post's Uncle Abner or
Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee, Alexander McCall Smith creates an
African detective, Precious Ramotswe, who's their full-fledged
heir.
It's the detective as folk hero, solving crimes through an
innate, self-possessed wisdom that, combined with an
understanding of human nature, invariably penetrates into the
heart of a puzzle.
If Miss Marple were fat and jolly and lived in
Botswana--and decided to go against any conventional notion of
what an unmarried woman should do, spending the money she got
from selling her late father's cattle to set up a Ladies'
Detective Agency--then you have an idea of how Precious sets
herself up as her country's first female detective. Once the
clients start showing up on her doorstep, Precious enjoys a
pleasingly successful series of cases.
But the edge of the Kalahari is not St. Mary Mead, and the
sign Precious orders, painted in brilliant colors, is anything
but discreet. Pointing in the direction of the small building
she had purchased to house her new business, it reads "THE
NO. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY. FOR ALL CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS AND
ENQUIRIES. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED FOR ALL PARTIES. UNDER
PERSONAL MANAGEMENT."
The solutions she comes up with, whether in the case of
the clinic doctor with two quite different personalities
(depending on the day of the week), or the man who had joined a
Christian sect and seemingly vanished, or the kidnapped boy
whose bones may or may not be those in a witch doctor's magic
kit, are all sensible, logical, and satisfying.
Smith's gently ironic tone is full of good humor towards
his lively, intelligent heroine and towards her fellow Africans,
who live their lives with dignity and with cautious acceptance
of the confusions to which the world submits them.
Precious Ramotswe is a remarkable creation, and The No.
1 Ladies' Detective Agency well deserves the praise it
received from London's Times Literary Supplement. I look
forward with great eagerness to the upcoming books featuring the
memorable Miss Ramotswe, Tears of the Giraffe and Morality
for Beautiful Girls, soon to be available in the U.S. --Otto
Penzler
