The books possess a beguiling simplicity that is hard to convey without making them seem fey, when in fact they are direct, vivid and down-to-earth ... what he achieves in his No.1 Ladies * Detective Agency novels is the depiction in the lives of his main characters of a benign system of morality - derived by Mma Ramotswe from the old-fashioned ways of doing things' * DAILY TELEGRAPH * 'Nothing spoils [McCall Smith's] vision of Botswana as a place where decent people triumph over mischief-makers' * SUNDAY TIMES * ** 'The writing is as fluent and gracious as ever, and charmingly conveys the practical wisdom of much of African life' * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH * ** 'Written with the gentleness of its predecessors and with a charm that is quite exceptional in modern detective fiction' *