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91 of 93 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Back on Track, April 20, 2010
I have really enjoyed this series - now up to number 11 I think with this installment. It is unique in many ways and teaches many lessons about life. By the way, the TV series is great too.
Besides the more obvious things like the great characters in the series - after a while they seem like you actually know them as you would real people - what I really liked about the series is the details about Botswana and life there. And so much of it is positive, unlike so much of what you hear about Africa these days. The books also teach many lessons useful to people everywhere, but from a Botswana/African perspective that can really shine a light where it needs to shine so to speak.
The first book was especially good in portraying the Botswana background and viewpoint - I assume accuracy here as the author lived there a long time. The author seemed to move away from this as the series progressed - maybe he thought readers had enough or knew all of it already and did not want to hear about it so much. I disagree. It's what got me hooked on the series.
Like many others, I was somewhat disappointed with the book right before this one - the 10th I think, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built. It just wasn't as good as the ones before it. I was worried that the series had run out of steam.
I am happy to see that this new installment gets back to the series roots in many respects showing us some more about the real Botswana, especially something we have not yet seen in the series - the delta region. The overall plot seems very vigorous too - an improvement over #10 I think. I won't go into that too much as readers usually like a surprise.
I hope that series fans will come back and read this latest book, meet favorite characters again, be entertained, and learn something about Botswana and life in general as well.
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No.11 as wonderful as No.1 (and those inbetween), April 21, 2010
In fact No.11 is as good as No.1 and Nos.2-10 as well: I never thought that the novels went off. It is a remarkable literary achievement, to write eleven magnificent and thoroughly enjoyable novels, with our favorite characters getting even more lovable as time goes by, and without the quality tapering off in any way.
So eleven cheers for Alexander McCall Smith not just on this novel as a stand-alone work - which is great in itself - but in this unique literary achievement of a series of eleven novels all of which are as good as each other. Not even JRR Tolkein managed it (with Lord of the Rings at just three volumes), and Dickens novels were all about separate characters. No, this is a truly remarkable feat...
AND even more so if one considers that our favorite novelist is writing other series as well - including the two new novels set in London (out soon in the USA), which are equally good and, sadly it seems, not as well known or appreciated by McCall Smith aficianados as perhaps they should be, since they are every bit as good, not to mention hilariously funny, as the better known African eleven volume series.
So read and enjoy this novel, and then dip into his other series as well, in Edinburgh (two series), London (one) and Germany (one series).
Christopher Catherwood
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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lovely, warm and fuzzy novel, April 21, 2010
This is the 11th installment in Alexander McCall Smith's enchanting and uplifting series about a female detective living in Botswana. It is not necessary to have read ALL the other books in the series, but if you haven't read any, this is probably not the best place to start.
The structure is very similar to others in the series, with the familiar cast of characters appearing. There are essentially four interwoven storylines. Mma Makutsi's fiance Mr Phuti Radiphuti is in an accident and she clashes with his aunt over who should nurse him back to health. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe has several cases on the go. She is asked to investigate whether a husband is being unfaithful, to assist another man who has been swindled out of his money and travels with Mma Makutsi to the Okavango Delta to track down a safari guide who has been left some money in a will. However these storylines often take a backseat to discussions about teapots, new boots and the merits of the new blue van.
The book opens with Mr J L B Matekoni musing about road rage and the futility of reacting to it and it ends with Mma Ramotswe musing about how to lead a good life. "Do not complain about your life. Do not blame others for things that you have brought upon yourself. Be content with who you are and where you are, and do whatever you can to bring to others such contentment, and joy, and understanding that you have managed to find yourself."
It's a lovely, warm and fuzzy novel that lives up in every way to the others in this gorgeous series.
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