Book Review: The Miracle at Speedy Motors

I have never, myself, read a single book in the "Number One Ladies Detective Agency" series. I suppose this is due to the fact that I so relish hearing the narrator, Lisette Lecat, give life to the words of the texts. She does such a splendid job, that I am quite sure I will not read the next installment in this series (which is due out next month under the title, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built) unless our library purchases the audio book.

But the last two audio books I have listened to have driven home a few drawbacks to listening to the books without ready reference to the written words. While listening to Richard Restak's book, Poe's Heart and the Mountain Climber, I found myself wanting to look back over the chapters to fully absorb details like quotes and statistics. I even popped back into my library to see if they had a hard copy of the book. Alas, they did not, but the librarian kindly took down the title. A few weeks later (too long to wait to write the book review), I picked up an inter-library loan copy of the book.

After finishing that audio book, I began the next audio book I had checked out, The Miracle at Speedy Motors. I'm really not sure when I began listening to this, since I had several other books I was reading in hard copy at the same time. Primarily, I listen to books while driving back and forth from taking my little boys to school or my ES to and from wrestling practices.

Alas, midway through the book (and just as I departed for a four hour drive - perfect opportunity for listening to a book), the library CD became stuck in the van's CD player. It felt like approaching the summit of the largest drop on a roller coaster, only to find yourself, suddenly, in the exit line. I had only purchased gas for the van, so I actually turned around and returned home to grab a portable CD player. I knew I couldn't log 8 hours of drive time and not finish another grand "Number One Ladies Detective Agency" novel.

As I began to write this review, I flipped the recorded book case over and read these three summary sentences:

"Searching for the truth behind the death of an American tourist, Precious visits a game reserve and is rejuvenated by the exquisite beauty of Botswana's landscape. But trouble brews back at the agency, where her assistant Mma Makutsi launches the Complaint Half Hour, providing herself a forum for her grievances. And Precious' dependable husband Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni suddenly decides to mortgage his auto repair shop."

I have to be honest, I don't remember a thing from the first two sentences (although, I thought there was a situation matching the first sentence in a previous book in the series). My understanding of the four primary plot lines revolved around threatening letters received by Mma Ramotswe and her assistant, the conflicted purchase of a new bed for Mma Makutsi by her fiance, the challenging case of discovering a past for a woman who believed she was adopted at an early age, and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's rash decision to pursue a miracle for their crippled foster daughter, Motheleli.

I am always amazed at writers, like Alexander McCall Smith and Maeve Binchy, who can populate their books with certain key characters and then create further plots and conflicts for those characters to muddle through. It, indeed, feels like one is merely eavesdropping on the life of a real community. The various events might run together a bit in my mind, but it is still a pleasure to become a fly on the wall in Mma Ramotswe's Botswana! And if you want to become a fly on the wall of Smith's study, head here, where you can watch a brief (3-1/2 minutes) monologue Smith gives to explain how he came to write the series and how the main character has remained true to herself while plowing through adventure after adventure.

And when I finished listening to this installment (after returning from a welcome weekend getaway), I had to rewind and jot down the closing thoughts which Mma Ramotswe shares at the end of this book. She tells her husband, "It is not foolish to hope for miracles ... there are many miracles." Then she goes on to muse to herself, "One should not ask too many things in this life, especially when one already had so much."