The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series
| Author | Alexander McCall Smith |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime fiction |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) eBook |
This article discusses the series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, which began with The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Seventeen novels have been published in the series from 1998 to 2016.
Mma Precious Ramotswe is the main character in a series including 17 novels from 1998 to 2016. The country of Botswana is in a sense a character as well, as it is a crucial aspect of how the stories flow. Mma Ramotswe starts up her detective agency when she is 34 years old, using the inheritance from her father to move to the capital city Gaborone to buy a house for herself and find an office for her new business. She feels a detective needs to know about people more than anything, to solve problems for them. The readership was at first small, then gained abruptly in popularity in the US and in England, beyond the author's home in Scotland. In 2004, sales in English exceeded five million, and the series has been translated to other languages.
The episodic novels are as much about the adventures and foibles of different characters as they are about solving mysteries. Each book in the series follows from the previous book.
The novels have been adapted for radio by the author and for television.
Mma Precious Ramotswe is the main character in a series including 17 novels from 1998 to 2016. The country of Botswana is in a sense a character as well, as it is a crucial aspect of how the stories flow and the problems which face her clients. Mma Ramotswe starts up her detective agency when she is 34 years old, using the inheritance from her father to move to the capital city Gaborone to buy a house for herself and find an office for her new business. She feels a detective needs to know about people more than anything, to solve problems for them. Her story is told in the first novel from birth to opening the detective agency in the first novel.
Mma Ramotswe is a Motswana woman who is the protagonist in the series and the main detective. Mma is a Setswana term of respect for a woman; the equivalent term for a man is Rra.
Mma Precious Ramotswe solves cases for wives whose husbands have gone missing, for a school teacher whose son has disappeared by finding the kidnappers, for a wealthy father whose 16-year-old daughter is frustrating him by going out on her own. She helps a man atone for sins of his youth by finding the people he hurt decades earlier. She uncovers a scheme by twin brothers to use one medical degree and certificate between the two of them. She solves a case for herself, when she thinks she must seek a divorce from her first husband, but learns differently when she seeks out his mother. Her personal life has a main sorrow, that her only child lived just a few days, as the child's father beat her during the pregnancy, a story told in retrospect. This led her to decide never to marry again after he left her. Her joy is her engagement and eventual marriage to Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, who has taken on foster care of a sister and brother from the orphan farm. The cases are set in the cities of Botswana, mainly on the edge of the Kalahari desert, rather than in the desert. There are occasional forays into neighboring nations.
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