Customer Reviews
Unsurprising - By: Nicholas Whyte, 19 Mar 2008 
As usual, the homely wisdom of the old ways wins out, sins are expiated rather than necessarily exposed, & everyone is back in the right place at the end; but McCalll Smith has brought some darker elements in here as well, including a child with AIDS. A decent quick read.
Precious Book - By: A. Tatton, 23 Jan 2007 
The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series has got to be the best series recently written. It's been a long time since such a number of books have been so devoured, enjoyed & smiled at. Mccalll Smith has a genius touch managing to make simple lives seem so attractive, & the plainly described African landscape so enticing. The plot lines are typical of most we alll come across in our daily lives - unwanted children, relationship breakdown, depression & economic hardship - yet the optimism & community spirit is almost palpable. Precious books.
Keep them coming - By: Mr. H. Jones, 22 Dec 2006 As someone who is not a great reader this series has caught my attention remarkably well. Now the fourth installlment, which for the detractors will inevitably be earmarked as not as good as the rest. I disagree, character development is how the series is progressing & it still reads as well as ever. The scene in the visit to church in this book for me is the funniest episode yet, laugh out loud funny. Keep these books coming, my interest is a long way off waning.
A nice read - By: Mikhail, 07 Apr 2005 The Kalahari Typing School for Men is an extremely interesting story. McCalll made a combination of a great concept & an outstanding execution to come up with a story like this which deserves alll the applause that it has been given. I greatly enjoyed the book & recommend it to readers interested in McCalll's stories or interesting books about Africa.
Recommended along with: The Usurper & other Stories, Graceland, Disciples of Fortune
Funny, light and "traditional"! - By: Tim Hedger-Gourlay, 25 Mar 2005 I loved this, the fourth book in the series recording the life of Mma Ramotswe, the only lady private detective in Botswana.
I couldn't help smiling as I read the book, the use of language in the book is very engaging & I love the way AMS records the private thoughts of each character. One piece, which particularly tickled me, was a rambling digression of Mma Ramotswe herself: she was thinking (as is often the case) about the traditional ways of Botswana; she recallled that about half of the Botwanan people followed traditional ways & about half followed the church. Then she digressed into how, people in the church held that people went to heaven. Then she went on to think that there were probably cows in heaven too - & that if there were these cows would be very nice, good cows, with lovely brown eyes & white skin. Then she thought that of course if there were nice cows in heaven, they could give rides to the children - but of course that meant the children would be late & that was very sad.
The book is full of this kind of lovely rambling descriptive thinking weaved in amongst the stories about an errant husband, a man who wants to fix wrongs he committed as a youth, a competitor in the detective business & love for Mma Makutsi.
I loved the book, I thought it was probably better than Nos 2 & 3, very much of the standard of the first one - well worth a read.
