The Full Cupboard of Life (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) by
Alexander McCall Smith
pbk out August 03
(Polygon)
at £8.99
The unique and estimable Precious Ramotswe, philosophical and fat
(though she prefers the term ‘traditionally built’) runs a detective
agency, the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency in fact. Through her doors
come a series of clients, most of them beset with all-too-human
problems. Is, for instance, the long-lost Daddy who has just turned up
out of the blue, real or an impostor? Another client wishes Precious to
locate a girl and a family that he wronged many years ago in his youth.
In this, the fifth in the series, Mma Holonga wishes to know which of
her five suitors is, well, most suitable.
Not then the kind of casebook that mght have confronted Philip
Marlowe? But this is not California, it’s Botswana, an African state of
which you may not have heard, as it is relatively prosperous – and
peaceful. So, are these crime novels? Certainly not, says Marcel
Berlins, to my knowledge the first mainstream crime reviewer to raise
his head above the parapet on the subject. He argues that because
Precious ‘does not solve murders or indulge in violent action’, her
creator’s books are not crime fiction.
But whilst Precious is not, as claimed by the New York Times ‘the Miss
Marple of Botswana’, the core of each book is an investigation of one
sort or another, here into Mma Holonga’s suitors, a case that requires
of Precious her usual degree of intelligence, guile and deep knowledge
of human nature.
It is true however, that I am on shaky ground with this particular
novel. More so than in previous books, McCall Smith is perhaps too much
concerned with the action (I use the term loosely) around the periphery
of his core plot - for example the problems of Mr.J.L.B. Matekoni, the
proprietor and master mechanic of Tlokweng Speedy Motors, long
promised to Precious in marriage. But I don’t think that will spoil
your enjoyment of this book which, like the others, is discursive and
leisurely. Why after all, should not crime fiction occasionally
concern itself with the gentler forms of skullduggery? Especially if,
as here once again, they are informed by McCall Smith’s unique
appreciation of Botswana’s life, lore and language.
Read this one, then go back to the others. One of fiction’s civilised
pleasures, crime or otherwise, awaits you.
(
Bob Cornwell
)
New Books by Alexander McCall Smith at Amazon.co.uk
The Full Cupboard of Life (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) by
Alexander McCall Smith
