This is the second book in the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series and I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one. I still found the characters charming, the main ones at least, and I like the strange formal tone and the little throwaway comments and etiquette lessons about the culture of Botswana and how it differs to surrounding African countries; like that you are suppose to hold your forearm of the hand that you are shaking with to do a proper respectful handshake, or that you take a gift with both hands regardless of the size of the gift because otherwise it seems like you are snatching and not grateful. I also liked the cozy, kind of lazy aspect to it, nothing happens really quickly and it kind of makes you a bit warm and fuzzy. Plus the central female character is fat and it's mentioned but it doesn't define her personality or really affect how people see her and she is actually comfortable being 'traditionally built' as is described in the book which I think is pretty refreshing and especially so for a white, male author.

What I didn't like about it was the lack of mystery. The central case for the agency is given a couple of chapters at best and the end surely wouldn't satisfy anyone. There is also a lot of unfaithfulness in the book, is Botswana really like that? I don't know. Although I guess a lot of the clientele of a private investigators want to know if their partners are cheating on them so it makes sense I suppose.

Anyway I have already bought the next book in the series so we'll see where it takes me.