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The Eye of the Leopard

Two sides of the dark continent

Henning Mankell
Harvill Secker, 315pp, £12.99,

Anthony Sattin

Wednesday, 28th May 2008

Anthony Sattin reviews two books with contrasting takes on Africa

There is no place for such tensions in The Miracle at Speedy Motors, the ninth novel to feature Precious Ramotswe, proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. There are no whites, either. But there is trouble. How, Mma Ramotswe might wonder to her husband, the long-suffering Mr J. L. B. Matekoni, could a lady detective survive if there wasn’t trouble in the world?

Alexander McCall Smith’s latest novel opens with the delivery of an anonymous letter, warning the ‘fat lady’ (Mma Ramotswe) and ‘the one with the big glasses’ (her assistant, Mma Makutsi) to watch out. From this, McCall Smith spins several other narrative threads about the real identity of one of Mma Ramotswe’s clients, about Mr J. L. B. Maketoni’s daughter’s disability and about Mma Makutsi’s new bed.

Anyone who has read one of the previous novels in the series will know that McCall Smith is more interested in character and atmosphere than action. Nothing very much happens: Mma Ramotswe goes to talk to a friend, drives out of town, believes she is being chased (she isn’t), while Mr J. L. B. Maketoni takes his disabled daughter to a consultant and Mma Makutsi and her fiancé go to buy a marital bed. It rains and then the sun comes out. Problems arise and are solved, usually with the help of other people.

The Botswana of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is a reassuringly benign place, its overriding sentiment wrapped in a sentence from Mma Makutsi to Mma Ramotswe: ‘I think you’re probably right … You usually are … because you are a kind lady.’ Kindness, generosity, openness, hope, charity. Violence, bloodshed, greed, despair. All black, white and very colourful. That sounds like Africa.