Morality for Beautiful Girls
Fans around the world adore the bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma Ramotswe—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates her cases and her personal life with wisdom, good humor, and the occasional cup of tea.
In Morality for Beautiful Girls, Precious Ramotswe, founder and owner of the only detective agency for the concerns of both ladies and others, investigates the alleged poisoning of the brother of an important “Government Man,” and the moral character of the four finalists of the Miss Beauty and Integrity Contest, the winner of which will almost certainly be a contestant for the title of Miss Botswana. Yet her business is having money problems, and when other difficulties arise at her fiancé’s Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, she discovers the reliable Mr J.L.B. Matekoni is more complicated then he seems.
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Community Reviews
Like I have done so many times before, I didn’t start this book series until seeing the tv show that was cancelled after just one season. Seems the show wasn’t as good as the books, which is what a lot of the reviews declared. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I will say that I am really enjoying the book series.
The gangs all back for this third installment which includes Precious, her assistant, Grace, and her new fiancé, JB, the local mechanic, along with the two orphaned children that JB agreed to foster. Precious and JB decided that the kids should live with Precious and they would all live together after she and JB married. It was also decided that JB would create space for Precious’s detective agency on the property next to his auto shop. This would be more beneficial for Precious in being able to keep her business going. Precious is struggling with the financial strain of the running a business.
The book summary is pretty vague and hardly does more than the brief paragraph of the storylines. It’s pretty early in the story when Precious begins to suspect that JB may be suffering from depression and is starting to let things go, like his relationship with Precious, the kids and his business. Fortunately, Precious immediately picks up the slack and installs Grace in the shop as Acting Manager to get on top of the business affairs as well as those two lackey apprentices.
There are also the secondary storylines of Precious’s cases. One is about getting rid of a new wife, who is suspected of poisoning her husband in an effort to get rid of him and his parents so that she can inherit the husband’s estate. I loved the passage where Precious was pondering the difference between morality and existentialism and not in just the matter of beautiful girls either, because she has a whole other opinion of beautiful girls. Love Precious!!!
There is also the storyline of Grace working on a case in determining the character of the four finalist of a local beauty contest. A well-known journalist who covers the contest has been having issues with some of the contestants being disreputable women. Loved Grace’s musings on the inequality between men and women, especially in how they are raised and the harmful ways that parents exasperate the issues of inequality in the way they raise their sons and daughters.
McCall Smith packs a lot in 240pgs and I enjoyed the continuing character development of Precious and JB and their relationship as well as that of Grace in her new role. The pacing of this series can be slow at times, but so much of it is spent on continuing character development and a lot of introspection with Precious and the reader and all her thoughts as she travels through her days in early 21st century Botswana. I’m a character driven reader and I enjoy these types of development because a reader can get a better sense of who the character is and what is going through their mind. The storyline was in line with the moral of the story and the writing was well done. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.2 that I will be rounding down to a 4star review.
The gangs all back for this third installment which includes Precious, her assistant, Grace, and her new fiancé, JB, the local mechanic, along with the two orphaned children that JB agreed to foster. Precious and JB decided that the kids should live with Precious and they would all live together after she and JB married. It was also decided that JB would create space for Precious’s detective agency on the property next to his auto shop. This would be more beneficial for Precious in being able to keep her business going. Precious is struggling with the financial strain of the running a business.
The book summary is pretty vague and hardly does more than the brief paragraph of the storylines. It’s pretty early in the story when Precious begins to suspect that JB may be suffering from depression and is starting to let things go, like his relationship with Precious, the kids and his business. Fortunately, Precious immediately picks up the slack and installs Grace in the shop as Acting Manager to get on top of the business affairs as well as those two lackey apprentices.
There are also the secondary storylines of Precious’s cases. One is about getting rid of a new wife, who is suspected of poisoning her husband in an effort to get rid of him and his parents so that she can inherit the husband’s estate. I loved the passage where Precious was pondering the difference between morality and existentialism and not in just the matter of beautiful girls either, because she has a whole other opinion of beautiful girls. Love Precious!!!
There is also the storyline of Grace working on a case in determining the character of the four finalist of a local beauty contest. A well-known journalist who covers the contest has been having issues with some of the contestants being disreputable women. Loved Grace’s musings on the inequality between men and women, especially in how they are raised and the harmful ways that parents exasperate the issues of inequality in the way they raise their sons and daughters.
McCall Smith packs a lot in 240pgs and I enjoyed the continuing character development of Precious and JB and their relationship as well as that of Grace in her new role. The pacing of this series can be slow at times, but so much of it is spent on continuing character development and a lot of introspection with Precious and the reader and all her thoughts as she travels through her days in early 21st century Botswana. I’m a character driven reader and I enjoy these types of development because a reader can get a better sense of who the character is and what is going through their mind. The storyline was in line with the moral of the story and the writing was well done. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.2 that I will be rounding down to a 4star review.
This is the third book in the series.
I felt the book had a slow start but about the mid-point, the story flowed better and became more interesting.
Mma Ramotswe has promoted her secretary, Mma Makutsi, to Assistant Detective. Mr. J.L.B. Maya Komi is suffering from depression. The decision is made to stop renting office space and move the office to Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. In addition to being an assistant detective, Mma Makutsi will be the garage’s secretary.
The story involves finding a wild boy, finding out if a wife is poisoning the family, and finding a moral beauty queen contestant.
I love the descriptions of the land. I can just picture the thunderstorms and imagine the smell of the land after the rain.
The two foster children are getting along splendidly. Now, I just need to wait to find out when will the wedding finally take place.
I felt the book had a slow start but about the mid-point, the story flowed better and became more interesting.
Mma Ramotswe has promoted her secretary, Mma Makutsi, to Assistant Detective. Mr. J.L.B. Maya Komi is suffering from depression. The decision is made to stop renting office space and move the office to Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. In addition to being an assistant detective, Mma Makutsi will be the garage’s secretary.
The story involves finding a wild boy, finding out if a wife is poisoning the family, and finding a moral beauty queen contestant.
I love the descriptions of the land. I can just picture the thunderstorms and imagine the smell of the land after the rain.
The two foster children are getting along splendidly. Now, I just need to wait to find out when will the wedding finally take place.