Reviews

I’ve never been anywhere in Africa and I know nothing about Africa so keep that in mind.

Kind of cute and charming but not a proper mystery with a main mystery that needs to be solved or something bad happens. Someone called it vignette styled writing and I agree 100%. Small little snippets aka cases. This style might not be for everyone but I was fine with it.

Not sure I’m fine with a man writing about “fat” women and “fatness” or “traditionally build women”, it rubbed me the wrong way.

I also didn’t like the comment from Sunday Times at the back, “Forget the library - the body is in the mud hut.” There are no bodies in this book and like 2 huts in connections to cattle stations, they have houses in Africa…

salston's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I really liked this book. It feels more like a series of connected short stories than a novel though. It is not about one mystery that runs through the whole books, but a series of small mysteries that are connected through Precious Ramotswe, and sometimes related. I like characters, and this is a character driven story.

nicolegiordano's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

I didn't really care for this book. I felt like all of her cases were random and solved too quickly. They lacked excitement and intrigue. In addition, the independence she seemed so bent on keeping just disappeared in the end.

lashakas7's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

jrenouard's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A sweet story of the first woman detective in Botswana. It is charming and a lovely exploration of Botswana.

sassafrasreas's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

A touching story out of nowhere!

This book was recommended to me by my husband, and much of my time spent reading it I wondered why. It wasn't as though it was bad - not at all, actually - but I also didn't think it was that good. I had a hard time identifying the "real" story because there are a lot of little side stories, and I wasn't sure what to focus on.

Yet, by the last line, he got me. I was in tears. Somehow, in the last 1% of the book, I felt genuinely connected to characters that had felt somewhat removed for 99% of the story. I was so touched by how it ended and so surprised by how I reacted.

In addition to a heartwarming resolution, the author uses language in a strikingly simple way, which often made me pause and reflect, and sometimes chuckle. Even now, as I look back at quotes I highlighted, I'm brought back to the story in such a different, much more meaningful way.

How did the author do that?

"I am Precious Ramotswe, citizen of Botswana, daughter of Obed Ramotswe who died because he had been a miner and could no longer breathe. His life was unrecorded; who is there to write down the lives of ordinary people?"

house_on_the_cerulean_kelsey's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I'm glad I read the book; I was worried that a book about a woman from Botswana written by a white man living in the UK would be cringey, but the author's childhood in Botswana seems to have given him genuine love for the place and the people there.
I had to knock off a star though because I really didn't like the ending; it just seemed so out of line with the rest of what the author had been building about the main character, and it felt like he was writing the ending he thought we wanted, instead of one that was true to the character's journey.

More...