Inoffensive and easy to read but faintly patronising
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The book is very easy to read and has some enjoyable gentle humour which makes it a very calming experience.
The author seems to know his market well and writes book after book for those people. This does have the effect when reading that it is very formulaic which does take some of the pleasure of enjoying the country setting away. It also makes the whole experience a bit dull and it felt patronising at some points within the book.
It is a good little touch of Botswana for a reader who has no experience of Africa but I do not think it is suitable for anyone who wants to learn about the country.
I feel very ambiguous towards the main characters and do not really care what they do, although was starting to warm to them a bit more towards the end.
I did enjoy the language used for the dialogue and it encouraged me, along with the various descriptions, to build up a picture in my head of the characters.
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Lightweight
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I was pleased to see that the previous reviewer had not enjoyed this book as much as A.McCall Smith's previous 'No 1 Ladies detective Agency' novels. I wholeheartedly agree and was about to decide that I would read no further in this series. Perhaps I might now give the next a try at some time in the future.
This book concentrated on Precious Ramotswe, her assistant, Mma Makutsi, and to a lesser extent, her husband-to-be and manager of Tlokweng Speedy Road Motors, Mr J.L.B.Matekoni, who is sick through most of this book.
There are two main 'cases', the first is a suspected poisoning within the family of an influential government official and the second is the search for a suitable candidate to represent Botswana in a beauty pageant. neither have particularly exciting twists to them.
I would like to have read more about the orphans now living with Mma Ramotswe and the boy that intriguingly appeared out of the forest.
It seemed more a young adult book, a lightweight, easy read.
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Not as satisfying as its predecessors
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"Morality for Beautiful Girls" is somewhat disappointing in comparison to the previous Mma Ramotswe novels. This has several reasons: The beginning of the novel drags on and on, and it takes almost half of the book until the plot picks up speed and tension. Several subplots are not totally convincing, especially Mr J.L.B. Matekoni's clinical depression which is so out of character and seems contrived - as if the author had intended to give the character more depth, but in my view he failed thus making a highly convincing character rather implausible. Mma Ramotswe seems to have changed character as well in the first half; she comes across as almost meek and resigned while Mma Makutsi becomes a risk-taking, self-confident jack-of-all-trades. Also, the foster children have sadly little airtime, and for many chapters in the book, they seem to be non-existent, and Mma Makutsi's brother is forgotten. Instead, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi go on and on about the good old Botswana morality and the bad girls that erode it - quite repetitive, schematic and boring after a while. Only the last third of the book is as delightful, captivating and convincing as the previous novels. Therefore "Morality for Beautiful Girls" merits no more than 3 stars.
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A nice read
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This book goes to bolster my initial opinion that McCall Smith is a sensational writer to look out for. The book goes to make the series a worthy read. I am particularly drawn to the way the author wrote about the way of life this African country especially its remarkable values. What is more, the characters are real and warm-hearted , and they give the story the humor that is necessary for an interesting life. Other fun books to read are: The usurper and Other stories, The Kalahari Typing School for Men, Disciples of Fortune
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Hard to read without smiling!
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This third book in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series continues the story of the fun characters created in the first two. It is full of gentle stories of African life and peppered with simple sentences that I can't help smiling when reading. One conversation between a woman and the main character Precious Ramotswe has the woman observing: "You're very lucky to be marrying a man who can fix things, most husbands only break things". If you're looking for something different from the first two, then don't buy this book. But if you enjoyed the first two and you'd like more of the same, gentle story telling setting in a very different setting to most novels, then this book is for you. I'm off to read the next in the series!
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