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new fan

Customer Rating:
I started reading the No.1 Ladies Detective series by accident. My daughter had the first one in her bookcase, and while babysitting I started it, and couldn't put it down. I ended up taking it home, and am now hooked on the series. I would recommend it to anyone who loves colorful characters, a little crying, a little laughing, and a great view of a colorful culture.

Great Book

Customer Rating:
This was a good book. I like the series, they're good reads and I have lived in Africa, so it's a tast of home for me.

Warm, witty, and wise

Customer Rating:
Sixth book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

Mma Ramotswe is dismayed to see the erosion of the traditional values of Botswana as modern life becomes more and more about material possessions. She does her best to set a good example, but falls short from time to time. Now married to Mr. J.L.B. Matekone, Mma Ramotswe continues to run the detective agency while many issues in her personal life cause her worry. A strange man breaks into her house, someone leaves her a pumpkin, her van is stolen, and her mean ex-husband returns to Gabarone, bent on blackmail. Soon after Charlie the apprentice storms out of the garage, Mma Ramotswe literally runs right into a solution to the sudden labor shortage. While following Charlie, she almost hits a man with her tiny white van. Enter the marvelous Mr. Polopetsi.

While Mma Ramotswe struggles with her personal life, Mma Makutsi starts to live it up a little (and solves a big case along the way). Mma Makutsi indulges her love of shoes and takes a dance class where she just might find someone to love.

Not much of a mystery

Customer Rating:
After I read Alexander Mccall Smith's very funny Op-Ed piece "The Really Terrible Orchestra" in the NY Times, I decided to try one of his books. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No.1 Ladies Detective Agency) was a real bore. No actual story line and certainly no mystery. I will pass on the rest of his books. MER

Absolute delight!

Customer Rating:
This is the sixth book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. The author does a fine job in giving the reader appropriate background so that she can follow the story even if she has not read the first 5 books in the series. I have read all the previous ones. I highly recommend all the books in the series. If you have been following this series, you may find parts of this one repetitive. I suppose with any series the author has to balance appealing to new and existing readers.

A lot happens in Cheerful Ladies, so you will not be bored with the plot. I found Cheerful Ladies to be one of the better ones in the series. Smith has the amazing gift of taking the reader to an exotic land and yet his stories are very familiar. His prose is extremely clear and simple and yet the content is thought provoking and deep. With clever subplots, Smith is able to bridge Western and African cultures.