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| The Miracle at Speedy Motors: The New Novel in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexander Mccall Smith
Publisher: Pantheon
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  75 reviews
Sales Rank: 1594
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.2
ISBN: 0375424482
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780375424489
ASIN: 0375424482
Publication Date: April 15, 2008
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Product Description
In the latest installment of this infinitely enjoyable and best-selling series, Precious Ramotswe is doing what she does best--helping people with their problems and enjoying the simple pleasures of life.
Mma Ramotswe is busy investigating her latest case: a woman who is looking for her family. The problem is, the woman doesn't know her real name of whether any members of her family are now living. Meanwhile, Phuti Radiphuti has bought Mma Makutsi a glorious new bed. Unfortunately, it will inadvertently cause her several sleepless nights. And life is no less complicated at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, where Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni--Mma Ramotswe's estimable husband--has fallen under the sway of a doctor who has promised a miracle cure for his daughter's medical condition, which Mma Ramotswe finds hard to believe. But Precious Ramotswe deals with these difficulties with her usual grace and good humor, and in the end discovers that the biggest miracles in life are often the small ones.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 70 more reviews...
 Light and enjoyable, but not the best of the novels April 15, 2008
43 out of 46 found this review helpful
Precoius Ramotswe is back, and Alexander McCall Smith has written another good installment in the Number One Ladies Detective Agency.
While it isn't the best in the series that I have read, it still has a number of the features which I think makes this series so compelling. The complex relationships, the gentle humour, the rather small issues that the Number One detective Agency has to solve, but they are all set against larger themes such as traditional life in Botswana and other broader issues of life in an Africa Country.
There are a number of things for Mma Ramotswe to solve. Her paid case in this installment is to find a woman's family. She does not know who they are or even if they are, she is just sure she was adopted and wants to find out if she has any family. However - first and foremost are the nasty letters which the agency is receiving, threatening and personal. Then there is her adopted daughter who is in a wheelchair. Mr J L B Matekoni has met a doctor who says he can heal her and is determined to try no matter what the cost.
Mma Makutsi's wedding date has not been set, and she is privately worried. It is affecting her work and when she takes a morning off, distracted, Mma Ramotswe is forced to wonder just what will happen when Mma Makutsi gets married...will she leave the agency? will she demand to be made more than associate detective?
Luckily, or unluckily Mma Makutsi has a disaster with a piece of furniture and her reliance on Mma Ramotswe is confirmed!
All these 'disasters' are affecting life at the Number one ladies detective agency, especially when it seems that one of their own may be perpetrating the nasty letters. Luckily it is the Apprentice Charlie who saves the day discovering the culprit which results in a hilarious chase through the local supermarket.
This series really is wonderful. The small things in life, such as rain, cattle, new shoes, furniture, a filing cabinet which is locked - they fill the integral plot keys to a larger life.
While this novel was warm and friendly, I just enjoyed others more. However I would still highly recommend this book. My favourite so far, I think, was the Kalahari Typing School for Men - but they are really all wonderful reading!
"Some of our [country has vanished], maybe. But not the heart that beats right inside...That is still there." March 17, 2008
32 out of 35 found this review helpful
In this ninth novel in the Alexander McCall Smith series, Precious Ramotswe, the "traditionally built" proprietor of the #1 Ladies' Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana, receives a threatening letter: "Fat lady: you watch out! And you too, the one with the big glasses." Mma Ramotswe and her assistant, Grace Makutsi, of the big glasses, are startled by this letter, and Mma Ramotswe even begins to believe that she is being followed. As the two women deal with their business and their lives, the letter haunts them--it is so uncharacteristic of the gentle, sweet-spirited life of Botswana, a place where, in Mma Ramotswe's experience, almost any problem can be worked out over a cup of bush tea.
Continuing the stories of Mma Ramotswe and those around her, this novel, like its predecessors, contains a mystery or two, along with many episodes of daily life which develop the characters further, quietly teach a few lessons, and show how humor and polite behavior can improve even the worst of situations. The central mystery of the novel is uncomplicated. A woman has come to Mma Ramotswe because she believes that she is not the daughter of her late "mother," and she wants Mma Ramotswe to find her birth family.
Subplots galore keep the stories flowing. The fuss-budget-y Grace Makutsi, who is engaged to marry a wealthy furniture seller, picks out an elaborate bed which she and her husband will occupy after they are married. When she has it delivered to her house, the bed precipitates a disaster. At the same time, Mma Ramotswe begins to suspect that one of the employees of Speedy Motors, the auto repair shop run by her honest and honorable husband, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, is the author of the threatening letter. When Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni meets a doctor who convinces him that their wheelchair-bound daughter Motholeli might be able to walk again, he will to stop at nothing--not even the doctor's enormous fee--to help her.
More a series of short episodes in the life of Mma Ramotswe than a mystery in the traditional sense, the novel creates a warm, feel-good atmosphere which provides a respite from the insistent realism of other contemporary detective stories, and ultimately, the "miracle" of Speedy Motors becomes obvious. Escape reading of the highest order, the #1 Ladies' Detective Agency series features characters who feel familiar, make us love them, and inspire us to obey our best instincts. (5 stars for character, 3 for plot) n Mary Whipple
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency)
The Full Cupboard of Life (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Book 5)
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency)
Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Book 7)
A cup of tea, a slice of cake, and thou May 4, 2008
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
The ninth book in the series brings both woes and wisdom for the ladies of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. This time there are only two clients with cases to solve, but the domestic affairs of Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi take centre stage.
Mma Makutsi and her splendidly named fiance Phuti Radiphuti are closer than ever to setting a date for the wedding, but when she picks out a snazzy new bed with red hearts on the headboard, she gets more heartache than she bargained for.
Mma Ramotswe is concerned over the growing outspokenness and self-confidence of Mma Makutsi, who after all, is soon to be married to the owner of a thriving furniture store, but she can't stop to dwell on the situation, because her own husband Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni has been talked into spending a fortune on a miracle cure for their daughter.
As far as the cases go, Mma Ramotswe has to find the family of a client who doesn't know her own real name, her birthday, or even if she has any family at all. Mma Makutsi's case is to find out whether a tenant is pulling a fast one on his landlord. At the same time, both ladies are trying to solve the mystery of the menacing letters.
After lots of awkward moments due to wrong conclusions, mistaken beliefs, incorrect information and erroneous assumptions, the ladies realize that the best road to happiness is to be true to yourself, honest to others, and to recognize the everyday miracles that we often take for granted.
For those now starting the series, the titles so far are:
The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Tears of the Giraffe
Morality for Beautiful Girls
The Kalahari Typing School for Men
The Full Cupboard of Life
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
Blue Shoes and Happiness
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
The Miracle at Speedy Motors
Easy to read, and overflowing with the gracious charm of its traditionally built central character, this series is ideal for people on the go who need a couple of hours to get away from it all. Chatty, relaxing and familiar, make sure you save some time to kick back with a cup of tea and the ladies of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
Amanda Richards, May 3, 2008
 As brilliant as ever - read this book April 17, 2008
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
This is as brilliant a book as ever in the series, and shows a writer very much still at the height of his creative powers. While some might think one overarching mystery might be important, I think that that misses the point of a novel like this - the wonderful pace. As a leading London lawyer told me, the great things about these novels is that they are SLOW: the pace is leisurely and they induce a wonderful sense of calm in the reader. This is why they are so popular and it is what makes them so readable - all that, of course, as well as the superb sense of place you get in these novels, their magnificent evocation of the African atmosphere from someone who was born and raised in the area and the totally brilliant sense of characterisation that makes them so real.
It is a shame that people tend only to read one of the many McCall Smith series. You can tell what a wonderful evocation of character he has by, for example, comparing his characterisation in both these novels and in his 44 Scotland Street series, where all the characters are equally well drawn. (One can do the same with others: for example the Isabel Dalhousie series and those of the Portuguese Irregular Verbs). The over-ambitious mother Isabel in 44 Scotland Street and Mma Makutsi in this novel: both are magnificent portrayals of highly memorable characters and show that McCall Smith is one of the true great writers of our time.
So buy this book, give it to all your friends and then buy at least one of the other series as well: you don't have to be in Botswana to enjoy this series, for example, and you don't have to be in Edinburgh to enjoy some of his others.
Christopher Catherwood (author of CHURCHILL'S FOLLY: HOW WINSTON CHURCHILL CREATED MODERN IRAQ and joint author of THE MERCHANTS OF FEAR).
Contentment April 18, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
We are not content; in a world where everything must be improved, be it one's appearance, assets, occupation, or home, McCall Smith has found a winning theme in the search for contentment. His characters live in modest circumstances and the skill of the author is evident in his ability to draw compelling characters dealing with typical but real moral dilemmas. What distinguishes this series is the deft manner whereby the author illustrates the process of overcoming personal weaknesses to find true satisfaction; that satisfaction and joy are found in selfless acts and appreciation for such gifts as life provides.
Precious few novels manage to hit the truths of life so squarely as this series. In these books the reader is taught that the living of a moral life is the way to be truly free. By this volume of the series the reader is well acquainted with the characters and it is a measure of the richness of the writing that Mr. Smith can draw such a wealth of lessons from such seemingly ordinary persons and encounters.
The series is about a detective agency and ostensibly about the solving of mysteries. But the only real mystery with which the author is really concerned is the search for happiness. Contentment, he persuasively argues, is to be found in the living of a decent and moral life. The familiar characters of this series are called upon in this volume to make sacrifices and find that in so doing they gain far more than they lose. In a world that cannot seem to find satisfaction, the world created by this author is one to which I gladly return as often as possible.
Highly Recommended
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