“The No 1. Ladies’ Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith

This book is relatively young – written in 1998 – and somewhat unusual. I’d say it’s like any other detective story in some way – and yet unlike in many other ways. It’s written in gorgeous British English, but the events take place far away from England – in Botswana, so all the characters are supposed to talk to each other in Setswana most of the time, and the readers receive a “translated” version.

It’s the first book about Botswana I’ve ever read, and it’s fascinating. It makes the reader dream about travelling to this magic African country one day – with so much love it’s described in the book. You won’t find any talk about starving villagers struggling to survive without access to food and clean water in this book (stereotypes that usually spring to mind when Africa is mentioned): Botswana is portrayed as a prospering country with advanced technologies, modern legislation, fully developed society and open, friendly, kind-hearted people (even the criminals, quite a few of whom the main character has caught so successfully, look less evil than those in most detective stories).

Alexander McCall Smith has his own, totally unmistakable writing style – warm, soothing, very careful of the readers’ feelings and totally enchanting. His main character – the lady detective Mma Ramotswe – seems to have no faults at all, only virtues, despite the somewhat straightforward manner in which she approaches her investigations. Just like any other detective from a book, she possesses superhuman intuition, unmistakable perception of human psychology and that wonderful knowledge of what course of action to take to arrive at the best result without harming herself or anyone involved, even under the most dangerous circumstances.

And while being so formidable, she is also very feminine. She feels very real too – far more so than her English colleagues like Miss Marple or Miss Silver. You’ll soon forget she is just a character in a book and start thinking of her as a real person.

Her adventures are as amazing as her way of approaching them. That, as well as the author’s mild humour, will ensure that you’ll never get bored while reading and will want more once you’ve finished (a reminder to myself – to find out if I can find the rest of the series somewhere).

I read it a few months ago while travelling by train. It was from Saratov to Moscow (800 kilometres is not a real distance by Russian stardards), so I had a couple of hours in the evening and about as much time in the morning before we arrived. But it was enough – the book reads in one go.