Book review: 'The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party'
The book is easily navigated. Each chapter deals with one of the four major issues Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are handling. A good detective must have a good understanding of human nature and Precious Ramotswe displays just that in her investigations into the cattle mutilation case.
Book: The Saturday Big Tent Wedding PartyAuthor: Alexander McCall SmithPublisher: Abacus/HachettePages: 356Price: Rs395
Private lady detective Mma Precious Ramotswe has her hands full – as full as can be expected in quiet Botswana. She misses her old white van, so much so that she sees it everywhere; she’s concerned about Charlie, her husband’s assistant who abandoned his girlfriend after she got pregnant and delivered twins; and her assistant Mma Grace Makutsi has a case of bridal nerves.
To top it all, Mma Ramotswe also has to solve a perplexing mystery handed to her by a complicated man, Mr Moeti, whose cattle are being mutilated in his farm. She goes about it with the precision of the methodical, unflappable detective that she is.
Those who are familiar with Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series will probably know that this instalment, The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, is a detective story, but not exactly a thriller. Yes, there are high-speed chases (as high speed as can get in laid-back Botswana); in fact, the book opens with one. There are also late night rendezvous (as late night as can get…) but like the rest of the book, everything’s understated. There is none of the pulsating Hollywood-style action that you would get from, say, an airport thriller. The book’s pace is measured, its twists and turns unfold leisurely between cups of redbush tea, between periods of quiet in the No. 1 Ladies’
Detective Agency office that adjoins the vehicle workshop owned by Mma Ramotswe’s husband, JLB Matekoni — a character who’s almost too good to be true.
The book is easily navigated. Each chapter deals with one of the four major issues Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are handling. A good detective must have a good understanding of human nature and Precious Ramotswe displays just that in her investigations into the cattle mutilation case. The author periodically infuses the book with her delightful meditations on life, human nature, loved ones and family. For example: “The next few days were marked by the fact that virtually nothing happened.
Such spells in otherwise busy lives are like breaks in bad weather: we know that they will not last, and our knowledge of their impermanence makes them seem all the more precious.”
Mma Matsuki’s bridal nerves bring a tart sharpness to the calmness that otherwise pervades the narrative because of Mma Ramotswe’s unflappable nature. “‘All Botswana then!’ Mma Matsuki had sighed.
‘The whole country. Maybe we should just put an advertisement in the Botswana Daily News and say that the whole country can come to the wedding and eat as much beef as it can manage. Maybe that’s our patriotic duty now.’” she says, while fretting over the guest list of her impending wedding.
Overall, this is an easy book to read. It’s engaging and entertaining. It’s not only about a mystery or two but a bit like ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul of those who like Detective Stories.’ It fills you up, calms you down and tells you a good story too, leaving you warmly happy at the end.