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Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated Precious and Grace in Books

Oct 15, 2017  
Precious and Grace
Precious and Grace
Alexander McCall Smith | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Don't read this if you haven't read the others
So I probably shouldn't have started reading this series from the 17th instalment, as you have zero grasp of the characters and the context in which these women have set up this agency.

In this latest installment of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi help a young woman on a quest to find someone from her past.

A young Canadian woman who spent her early childhood in Botswana requests the agency's help in recovering important pieces of her life there. With only a faded photograph - and, of course, some good old-fashioned detective skills - to guide them, Precious and Grace set out to locate the house that the woman used to live in and the caretaker who looked after her many years ago.

The problem is that as a stand-alone book it seems rather bland and a bit of an anti-climax. However, I'm sure it's much more interesting having read the rest of the series.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Entry Island in Books

Mar 27, 2019  
Entry Island
Entry Island
Peter May | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Not my usual sort of thing, but recommended to (more like thrust upon) me by someone whose taste in books is usually interesting. Not necessarily in this case, though: a competent mash-up of a contemporary police procedural thriller with a windblown historical romance set during the Highland clearances (younger readers, ask your dad): a Canadian cop starts having flashbacks (kind of) to his ancestor's life while investigating a murder on a remote island; he feels certain he knows the prime suspect, although she and he have never met before...

The structure of the book certainly works in its favour: whenever you get bored of the whodunnit, the switch to goings-on in the 19th century Hebrides is welcome, and vice versa. And, fair's fair, the story does pick up pace and interest in the final third after a slightly stodgy opening. However, neither the plotting nor the writing are what I'd call inspired; workmanlike is the word that springs to mind. Passes the time inoffensively but unlikely to linger in the memory.