Vanessa's Reviews > Tears of the Giraffe

Although it’s been a while since I read the first book, I’ve enjoyed returning to this series set mostly in Gabarone, the capital of Botswana, about the continuing adventures of Precious Ramotswe and her unique detective agency. While I normally am not a big fan of cozy mysteries, I love this series.

There is such a gentle sweetness to these books that it makes me want to crawl inside of them and lie down (like my favorite book by my favorite author, Cannery Row.)

In this entry, Mma Precious Ramotswe becomes engaged to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors (you’ll hear this name a lot.) She promotes her loyal secretary, Mma Makutsi, to assistant detective. And Mr. Matekoni finds himself the adoptive parent of two orphans without telling Precious first. In the midst of all this, the agency will investigate the 10 year old disappearance of an American student and Mma Ramotswe and Mr. Matekoni will deal with his larcenous housekeeper.

And thanks to McCall Smith’s deceptively simple storytelling, it all goes down like carmelized sugar with occasional bittersweet lumps.

The repair, however, would not last for long, and he knew he would have to return to dismantle the pump completely. And how would the vegetables get water then? This was the trouble with living in a dry country. Everything, whether it was human life, or pumpkins, was on such a tiny margin.

If men refused to appoint on merit, then go for a job with a woman. It may not be a glamorous office, but it was certainly an exciting thing to be. To be secretary to a private detective was infinitely more prestigious than to be a secretary in a bank or a lawyer’s office. So perhaps there was some justice after all. Perhaps all that work had been worthwhile after all.
But there was still this problem with the chickens.

Perhaps one day she would find a place where she would stay. That would be good. To know that the place you were in was your own place—where you should be.

One day soon she would drive out to the orphan farm and thank Mma Silvia Potokwane for giving them the children. She would also thank her for everything she did for those orphans, because, she suspected, nobody ever thanked her for that. Bossy as Mma Potokwane might be, she was a matron, and it was a matron’s job to be like that, just as detectives should be nosy, and mechanics...Well, what should mechanics be? Greasy? No, greasy was not quite right. She would have to think further about that.

Unbelievably, this is only one of four series McCall Smith has going currently, and that’s not counting his children’s books. He has such an affection for Botswana and his characters and it shows. Mma Ramotswe and Mr. Matekoni are so much alike in thoughts and values, but they also are two distinct characters and they’ve become one of my favorite fictional couples. I’ll be returning to this series, as well as dipping into other works in McCall Smith’s enormous catalogue.