Selected Product:
| The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency)
Paperback
Author: Alexander Mccall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: 2008-03-11
ISBN-10: 1400075726
ISBN-13: 9781400075720
List Price: $12.95
Average Customer Rating:
  | |
The Miracle at Speedy Motors: The New Novel in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency)
ISBN-10: 0375424482
ISBN-13: 9780375424489
List Price:$22.95
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency)
ISBN-10: 140007570X
ISBN-13: 9781400075706
List Price:$12.95
Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Book 7)
ISBN-10: 1400075718
ISBN-13: 9781400075713
List Price:$12.95
The Careful Use of Compliments (Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries)
ISBN-10: 1400077125
ISBN-13: 9781400077120
List Price:$13.95
The Full Cupboard of Life (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Book 5)
ISBN-10: 1400031818
ISBN-13: 9781400031818
List Price:$12.95
|
To use our price comparison to get the cheapest price, please click on the "Find the Cheapest Price" button located above for The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) by Alexander Mccall Smith (ISBN-10: 1400075726, ISBN-13: 9781400075720).
At this time we have not yet written a review for The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) by Alexander Mccall Smith (ISBN-10: 1400075726, ISBN-13: 9781400075720). Please continue to keep checking back to this page as we are constantly adding reviews.
Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
In the eighth installment of Alexander McCall Smith's endlessly enjoyable, bestselling series, the judicious Precious Ramotswe comes to discover what is true, stable, and genuine in an ever-shifting world.
There is rarely a dull moment in the life of Precious Ramotswe, and on Zebra Drive and Tlokweng Road many changes are afoot. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni wants be put in charge of a case involving an errant husband, and Mma Makutsi is considering leaving the agency, taking her near perfect score on the Botswana Secretarial College typing exam with her. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe has been asked to investigate a series of unexpected deaths at the hospital in Mochudi. Along the way, she encounters other tricky mysteries, and once again displays her undying love for Botswana, a country of which she is justly proud.
Another great book by Alexander McCall Smith
| Customer Rating: | | I had the pleasure of meeting the author this year at a talk at a local university and he is just as charming as you would think. Another great story from this super-creative guy! |
Another delightful book
| Customer Rating: | | This is yet another delightful read about our favorite "traditional" lady of Botswana. She continues to solve her clients' problems with simple common sense and a belief in the goodness of people. The characters in this series of books are so endearing, and Alexander McCall Smith makes you long for the simplicity of life that he portrays so well. I recommend the 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' series to anyone, and look forward to many more. |
It's About People, Not Plot
| Customer Rating:  | I loved the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series when it first appeared, but like so many things in life, as I read further entries in the series, they grew progressively less enchanting. Perfectly fun and readable, but somewhat familiar and no longer greatly anticipated, until I stopped after the fifth. Needing something fairly simple for short a car ride, I picked up the audio version of this eighth in the series, and revisited the familiar characters and their beloved Botswana.
This installment features three separate cases for the detective agency, all of which underscore the book's (and series') main theme: personal relationships. Mma. Ramotswe is asked by a distant relative to investigate the mysterious deaths of three patients at the hospital he works at. Mma. Makutsi is assigned a case in which the owner of a printing company suspects one of their employees of theft. Finally, Rra.Matekoni even gets in the act, and takes up a case which involves tailing a suspected wayward husband.
However, these cases act more as subplots than anything else, as the real focus is on the family of main characters. There's Mma. Makutsi's impending marriage and financial security, which leads her to question the need for her job. There's Rra. Matekoni's insecurity about his marriage to Mma. Ramotswe. There's even apprentice Charley, seeking to leave the garage to embark on grand schemes of his own. Smith seems a lot more interested in how close friends and family relate to each other and allow for periods of growth and change, as well as the benefits and pitfalls of trusting one another. It's a little striking then, that Mma. Ramotswe's children barely show up at all.
Nonetheless, the personal interactions are well-drawn and handled with Smith's usual gentle touch, and fans of the series will be pleased by them. However, the "crime" sections are rather forgettable. The hospital case is based on a famous disproven urban legend from South Africa, and thus rather predictable. The theft case is completely underwhelming and barely resolved. And the adultery case is marred by Rra. Matakoni's abandoning his methodical nature, which makes the whole enterprise somewhat silly. On the whole, the book feels somewhat flat and tired, and I'm reminded why I stopped reading the series. |
Coincidence?
| Customer Rating: | The first word that springs to mind when describing AM Smith's books is "gentle" and this is especially so with the Mma Ramotswe works. I enjoyed this the way I have enjoyed the others in the series. (I like the Dalhousie works too but had to give up on Portuguese Irregular Verbs)
My only concern was that the degree of coincidence between the plot thread involving deaths at the Mochudi hospital and an episode of "A Touch of Frost" that aired in 2001. Unless, of course, this is a common plot like philandering husbands and pilfering workers. |
The series
| Customer Rating: | | I like a book that I can read in two or three nights, one that has good clean writing. This is my fifth book in the series, another feel good, amusing story. Pretty soon I will have a shelf full of his works. Next..... |
|
