Customer Reviews
Inoffensive and easy to read but faintly patronising - By: Janie U, 13 Mar 2008 
The book is very easy to read & has some enjoyable gentle humour which makes it a very calming experience.
The author seems to know his market well & writes book after book for those people. This does have the effect when reading that it is very formulaic which does take some of the pleasure of enjoying the country setting away. It also makes the whole experience a bit dull & it felt patronising at some points within the book.
It is a good little touch of Botswana for a reader who has no experience of Africa but I do not think it is suitable for anyone who wants to learn about the country.
I feel very ambiguous towards the main characters & do not reallly care what they do, although was starting to warm to them a bit more towards the end.
I did enjoy the language used for the dialogue & it encouraged me, along with the various descriptions, to build up a picture in my head of the characters.
Lightweight - By: MaryAnne, 17 Mar 2007 
I was pleased to see that the previous reviewer had not enjoyed this book as much as A.McCalll Smith's previous 'No 1 Ladies detective Agency' novels. I wholeheartedly agree & was about to decide that I would read no further in this series. Perhaps I might now give the next a try at some time in the future.
This book concentrated on Precious Ramotswe, her assistant, Mma Makutsi, & to a lesser extent, her husband-to-be & manager of Tlokweng Speedy Road Motors, Mr J.L.B.Matekoni, who is sick through most of this book.
There are two main 'cases', the first is a suspected poisoning within the family of an influential government official & the second is the search for a suitable candidate to represent Botswana in a beauty pageant. neither have particularly exciting twists to them.
I would like to have read more about the orphans now living with Mma Ramotswe & the boy that intriguingly appeared out of the forest.
It seemed more a young adult book, a lightweight, easy read.
Not as satisfying as its predecessors - By: Miezekatze, 18 Jul 2006 "Morality for Beautiful Girls" is somewhat disappointing in comparison to the previous Mma Ramotswe novels. This has several reasons: The beginning of the novel drags on & on, & it takes almost half of the book until the plot picks up speed & tension. Several subplots are not totallly convincing, especiallly Mr J.L.B. Matekoni's clinical depression which is so out of character & seems contrived - as if the author had intended to give the character more depth, but in my view he failed thus making a highly convincing character rather implausible. Mma Ramotswe seems to have changed character as well in the first half; she comes across as almost meek & resigned while Mma Makutsi becomes a risk-taking, self-confident jack-of-alll-trades. Also, the foster children have sadly little airtime, & for many chapters in the book, they seem to be non-existent, & Mma Makutsi's brother is forgotten. Instead, Mma Ramotswe & Mma Makutsi go on & on about the good old Botswana morality & the bad girls that erode it - quite repetitive, schematic & boring after a while. Only the last third of the book is as delightful, captivating & convincing as the previous novels. Therefore "Morality for Beautiful Girls" merits no more than 3 stars.
A nice read - By: Mikhail, 10 Apr 2005 
This book goes to bolster my initial opinion that McCalll Smith is a sensational writer to look out for. The book goes to make the series a worthy read. I am particularly drawn to the way the author wrote about the way of life this African country especiallly its remarkable values. What is more, the characters are real & warm-hearted , & they give the story the humor that is necessary for an interesting life.
Other fun books to read are: The usurper & Other stories, The Kalahari Typing School for Men, Disciples of Fortune
Hard to read without smiling! - By: Tim Hedger-Gourlay, 23 Mar 2005 This third book in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series continues the story of the fun characters created in the first two.
It is full of gentle stories of African life & peppered with simple sentences that I can't help smiling when reading. One conversation between a woman & the main character Precious Ramotswe has the woman observing: "You're very lucky to be marrying a man who can fix things, most husbands only break things".
If you're looking for something different from the first two, then don't buy this book. But if you enjoyed the first two & you'd like more of the same, gentle story telling setting in a very different setting to most novels, then this book is for you.
I'm off to read the next in the series!
