Things are slowing down at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors...

books:

	• The Miracle at Speedy Motors: The New Novel in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series (No. 1 Ladies' ... Alexander Mccall Smith Pantheon, 2008 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 81 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The gentle world of Precious Ramotswe

Alexander McCall Smith is back with another book in The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series. Three of the main characters have situations which comprise the plot lines of the book. First of all, a client comes to Mma Ramotswe with a request that she find her lost biological family. Her assistant, Mmma Makutsi, and her fiance, Phuti, have a problem with a bed, and her husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, pays a high price to seek a cure for their foster daughter, Motholeli. Added to this, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi receive threatening and insulting letters from an anonymous person. As always, these plots are woven together throughout the book, and the ending neatly ties them up. This is not as clever a book as some of the others in the series, but it maintains the charm of Botswana and of lives lived with optimism and gratitude for the small blessings of life.

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Heart-Warming Vignettes About Caring for One Another

My favorite books in this series are filled with authentic stories of Africa and her people. As the series has developed, it's often reading more like people anywhere rather than Africans.

The Miracle at Speedy Motors examines the themes of marital love, parental responsibility, honesty, jealousy, commitment, bonding, handling mistakes, and friendship. In keeping with the detective focus of the series, there are cases to be solved. A woman wants to find an unidentified person. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi receive threatening letters. A landlord wants to get rid of a tenant.

The focus of the book, however, is on the relationships among the continuing characters, especially Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni and Mma Ramotswe, Mr. Phuti Radiphuti and Mma Makutsi, Mma Ramotswe and Mr. Polopetsi, and Mma Makutsi and Charlie in the garage. You also get to read more about Mma Potokwane and Motholeli than in most of the other books.

What made the book special to me were the heart-felt commitments that some of the characters made towards doing the right thing, no matter what. Alexander McCall Smith loves people and when he expresses that love through his characters it feels great just to be alive.

I found Mma Makutsi more annoying than usual in this book, and not nearly as funny in her foolish scenes. Otherwise, I would have graded the book at five stars. I hope that the next book will focus more on Precious and her family.

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"We are all care of one another"

Don't know about you, but I've been slapped silly by the speed of change in American life. Thus it is refreshing to open up a volume in the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series and watch how modern Botswana and its people, as portrayed in these charming but not simplistic novels, are holding their own as the future hurls itself at them. These are not what we have come to think of as conventional mysteries with body counts, procedurals and intricately plotted solutions. The private detective Mma Ramotswe and her assistant, Mma Matakusi, handle the daily transactions of their own lives and their clients that raise questions small and big, all of which have moral consequences. In THE MIRACLE AT SPEEDY MOTORS, it may be as simple as whether to cover up the damage to an expensive gift of furniture, or as complicated as whether to believe in (and pay for) a miracle cure for a young girl confined to a wheelchair.

In this book, Mma Ramotswe continues to apply the folk wisdom of the traditional way of life which she worries is slipping from Botswana's grasp. Tradition continues to lead her to the truth and to reconcile the fact that truth does not always deploy happy endings. It's the achievement of this delicate balance and warm wit that keep this reader coming back for more. There is nothing new, as a previous reviewer notes, which is why I've nicked it a star, but I'm glad to have spent time with it. If this is your first encounter with the series, go to the first volume, THE NO.1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY, to understand the impact its voice and world first made on its devotees.

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Things are slowing down at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors...

The Miracle at Speedy Motors is the latest installment in the successful No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, by Alexander McCall Smith.

Mma Ramotswe has a case or two to investigate. There are the threatening letters. Phuti Radiphuti has bought Mma Makutsi a bed with a heart, but there is no wedding date. And Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni spends a fortune seeking a miracle treatment for his adopted daughter's condition, without consulting Precious Ramotswe.

In the meantime, there are references to traditional Botswana, lazy apprentices, big glasses, bush tea, and cattle.

If you are a No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency fan, this will make sense. If this is your first experience with Mma Ramotswe, this is not the book to start with.

I am a big fan of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. This one hit all of the features that attract me to this series in the first place, but I've read enough of them that this one came across as... dull. Nothing new. I didn't learn more about Mma Ramotswe, Phuti Radiphuti, Mma Makutsi, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, or Botswana.

But I'm still a fan.

Time for a wedding!

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"In God We Trust"

This installment in the "Ladies No. 1 Detective Series" continues to develop the familiar characters of the Agency and the Mechanic Garage where Mma Ramotse's husband, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni works. There is a primary new case that the agency works, a case of a missing family. In addition, there is an attempt to restore the legs of Mma R and J. L. B. Matekoni's foster children who is confined to a wheelchair.

Interwoven in the story seems to be the issue of trust. It is a story about those who can be trusted and those who cannot be. A story about information that can be trusted, and information that is somewhat less worthy of immediate acceptance. It is a story about how people can change and how people don't change. These elements play the principle roles in this segment of the long saga of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

Smith notes that people can be on both sides of the trust line and sometimes, what seems to be untrustworthy behavior is anything but that. The good helper, Mr. Polopetsi, who contributes to the garage and the detective agency in his efforts is called into question. The trustworthiness of clients and informants is contemplated and sorted out. And the trust in doctors and the inexactness of science and medicine are illustrated.

Yet at its culmination, even with this equivocating nature of trust, there are miracles that are performed or come to pass. While not all miracles are huge miracles, they are miracles nonetheless. People need to understand that we should come to appreciate what we have, and always look to improve ourselves and our situation, without injury or malice to others. These are the basic tenets of McCall Smith's most recent book. These are the things of which life is made. These are the things that we encounter each and every day, yet only a discerning eye and an empathetic understanding will help guide us through the maze of signs and occurrences that life brings to us.

The book is one more fine addition to a long and interesting story which deals very specifically with the ethics of life and the morality of human interaction. It is as all of the books in the series highly recommended to all readers who have an interest in understanding the actions of people in society and how people interact with others to make a world that is at best, unpredictable, but also can be greatly satisfying when people respect other people. It is very much worth the time to read this quickly moving story as an addition to the wonderful adventures of the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17

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