I'm no fan of mystery, crime or detective books - the bore me, generally, though I loved Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher books in high school and Agatha Christie's Ten Little Niggers gave me chills (since renamed And Then There Were None, for obvious reasons - but I've got an old edition).

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a real gem, however. I absolutely loved it. Wise, funny, intelligent, insightful and blushing with vigour and a heartfelt love of Africa, I'm not in the least surprised this series - of which this is the first book - has done so well.

Set in Botswana, it features thirty-five year old Mma Ramotswe, a cunning, content and large (in the "traditional" way) woman who, after her father dies leaving her many head of cattle, sells up and opens a detective agency. Hired to track missing husbands, cheating husbands and thieving husbands, as well as daughters, sons and witch doctors, Precious Ramostwe has her hands full. Woven amongst the cases are beautiful descriptions of the land, insights into African culture in all its myriad forms, the life of her father, a miner in South Africa, and her own disastrous marriage which ended many years ago, and a sweet offer of love from one of her best friends, a successful mechanic.

What is especially intriguing about this book, for me, is its seemingly chaotic structure. It follows no neat format, employs chapters within chapters, retells the past without incorporating it into the plot, shifts perspective between characters (though Mma Ramotswe has the focal perspective) whenever desired, and could sometimes be mistaken for short stories. And it all works, superbly so. It's new and refreshing and extremely well written, every word and sentence and paragraph there for a reason, the small plotlines and overarching plot spun out with perfect timing and deft handling. It is serious and wise and thoughtful when it needs to be, and light and ironic at other times. I kept thinking "this'd make a great tv show!" only to find that the BBC have already jumped on that bandwagon - shame it hasn't made it to Canada.

Mma Ramotswe is a fantastic protagonist, a woman who stands up for herself and loves Africa despite its problems. I'm always interested in reading books set in Africa - the continent fascinates and intrigues me, its beauty draws me, and its the closest place to Australia, in terms of landscape and climate, that there is, which makes me feel like it's a kindred spirit. There are many places there that I would love to visit.

I could go on for ages highlighting all the great things in this book - I have absolutely nothing negative to say or complain about, and it was wonderful to read a book with proper English spelling intact (except, at one point, the word "humour", which was very odd). The proof-readers should be careful about looking for wrong dialogue punctuation though - end quotation marks before a paragraph break within someone's speech. I'm seeing it occur in almost all the books I've been reading lately, it's very shoddy.