THE JOY AND LIGHT BUS COMPANY

Easy reading

I have been a fan of the series since the first book all those years ago. Pleasant stories and a gradual development of the characters as time went by. Sadly all AMcS books are now platforms for the author's musings on philosophical or ethical issues. The Swedish Varg series became boring because of such musings and sadly the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency is slipping down the same route.It was almost three full chapters before there was even a hint of a story, just page after page of Precious Ramotswe's thoughts on various irrelevant topics. Grace Makutsi seemed to have regressed in her behaviour back to her immature start 20 years ago. Very lazy writing, no longer pleasant story telling.

Struggled to get into this book as the beginning is the usual discursive thoughts on men and happiness and other inconsequential matters but nothing else. A third of the way in actual detective work takes over, we still get reminisce and cod philosophising but a tolerable amount. The actual investigations are interesting and the last two thirds race past with everything working out nicely and succinctly. An improvement from the last several books where the charm was thinning to say the least.

Before I bought this book - and I have quite a few of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency - I read the reviews and was almost affronted by one reviewer who said there was too much philosophising. Surely, I thought, that is what we read them for? The plots are always minimal. But the reader was right. Mr. McCall Smith can turn out philosophy by the yard but he seems to have forgotten how to write a story, and mutterings of 'Come on, get to the point' have - understandably - no effect. I even found myself skimming paragraphs to discover if anything actually was going to happen. I did finish the book. But then it's not as long as it often felt.

Another delightful book in ‘The No1 Ladies Detective Agency’ series – 5 StarsIn this book, the problems are particularly close to home for Mma Ramotswe as her husband is approached to invest in a new business venture, and her friend, Mma Potokwani, takes-in an abused child…It’s always a pleasure to read one of ‘The No1 Ladies Detective Agency’ series, and this novel encapsulates all that is good about these books: The investigations are entertaining, there are wonderful descriptions of Botswana’s flora, fauna, and culture, and the entire story leaves you with an overriding sense of hope for humanity. It’s full of philosophical ‘problems’ but, as always, Mme Ramotswe is guided to the solutions by her innate kindness and understanding of human nature.Overall: Crime fiction doesn’t come much gentler than this. It’s very much a story with kindness and kinship at its heart.

I think I have all the Ladies Detective Agency books. Each one is love story, really; love for Botswana and love for the people there. They almost draw me to Gaborone, they are such warm, definite characters! In this book we had a peak into the business world of Grace's husband, Phuti, which seems to work the same way over there as it does everywhere - the importance of who you know, as well as what you know! The main story here is that Mme Ramotswe's husband, Mr J L B Maketone seems to be the victim of a scam that could cost him everything he owns, including his garage, but his old friend's offer turns out to be genuine, although the end result is diferent. And Mr J L B recognises his worth - and everyone is happy.