The Woman Who Walked In Sunshine

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: Lisette Lecat

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

In this latest installment of the beloved and best-selling series, Mma Ramotswe must contend with her greatest challenge yet - a vacation!

Business is slow at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, so slow in fact that for the first time in her estimable career Precious Ramotswe has reluctantly agreed to take a holiday. The promise of a week of uninterrupted peace is short-lived, however, when she meets a young boy named Samuel, a troublemaker who is himself in some trouble. Once she learns more about Samuel's sad story, Mma Ramotswe feels compelled to step in and help him find his way out of a bad situation. Despite this unexpected diversion, Mma Ramotswe still finds herself concerned about how the agency is faring in her absence. Her worries grow when she hears that Mma Makutsi is handling a new and rather complicated case.

A well-respected Botswanan politician is up for a major public honor, and his reputation is now being called into question by his rivals. The man's daughter has contacted the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency to investigate these troubling claims, but, as in so many cases, all is not as it seems. In the end, the investigation will affect everyone at the agency and will also serve as a reminder that ordinary human failings should be treated with a large helping of charity and compassion.

©2015 Alexander McCall Smith (P)2015 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Lisette Lecat, who has narrated this series from its beginning, is once again perfect for this story set in Botswana. With a relaxed pace, she sets the charming atmosphere, seeming to savor each of McCall Smith's sentences.... Lecat seems to delight in performing the voices and accents of each character, making each one distinct and memorable." (AudioFile)

Delightful

I am a number one fan of Alexander McCall Smith’s No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. Smith has no foul language, no explicit sex scenes or violence in his books. Instead we have great storytelling mixed with humor and a moral message wrapped around fascinating character with some human insight mixed in. To top it all off Smith adds some history and travelogue of Botswana into his story.

Our protagonist is Mma Precious Ramotswe the owner of the agency. Her assistant is Mma Makutsi who made 97 percent on the final examination from the Botswana Secretarial School. Mma Ramotswe is taking a vacation for one week. This is her first vacation with all the misgivings that it implies and she leaves Mma Makutsi in charge. In this story Mma Ramotswe observes “an act of selfishness, some small unkindness, could seem every bit as grave as a dreadful crime, the size of the secret said nothing about its weight on the soul.” Precious sets out to right the wrong and set a young child onto the right moral path.

Lisette Lecat brings the audiobook to life with the correct accent and pronunciation of the Setswana words. I read the first part of the series in book format then changed to audio; for this series I will only do audio as Lecat brings Ramotswe to life.

Sit down and read ever lax, will listen in this case

A very enjoyable book. It slows you down it causes you to think and to laugh in to see things from a different perspective. Enjoyed this book!

Getting back to roots

Mma Ramotswe takes some needed time off in this installment, which relieves some of the conflict between her and Mma Makutsi.

While Mma Makutsi works on cleaning out her food cupboard and her husband’s closet, the reader gets to spend a lot of time in her head. She muses on the state of Botswanan society and the human condition in general, and worries about her foster son’s education. This last part relieved my anxieties, from the total absence of the children in the last book, that they were being written out of the series. I was glad to find out that my fears that they had been sent to boarding school, or had been reclaimed by a long-lost relative, were unfounded.

By the third day of her “staycation,” her housework complete, Mma Ramotswe decides to drive to Gabarone and treat herself to lunch at the President’s Hotel. While there, she befriends a young boy who is being exploited by a woman who is teaching him to beg and steal, under the guise of caring for him.

Rescuing the boy and finding out what has become of his birth mother becomes the main story. I do not even remember what the case was.

The secondary story is the continuing conflict between the two main characters, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi. When Mma Ramotswe calls to find out what is going on in the office, Mma Makutsi, not wanting to burden her boss during what is supposed to be her holiday, gives evasive answers. This makes Mma Ramotswe feel like she is being pushed out of her own business, and eventually leads to an air-clearing confrontation between the two women.

Things are still not perfect between them at the end of the book, but the title of the next one, Precious and Grace, seems to imply that the relationship between the two women will continue to grow in that volume as well.

Perhaps the best of AM Smith!!

Story and pacing were perfect! This is a heartfelt wonderful story and performance. I can't wait for the next!

very enjoyable series

the entire series and the narrator are great! very entertaining. recommend to anyone, any age

Perfect in Audiobook

I have yet to find an Alexander McCall Smith series that I haven’t dearly loved. I’ve purchased this series in audiobook form from Audible, and the narration is absolutely wonderful! I feel truly transported to lovely Botswana! The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series is like the very best therapy available. If I listen to the audiobooks in the background while I do household chores or drive, I find myself happy and smiling and calm through them. Yes, there are troubles in the world, but most can be overcome or at least mitigated by a cup of tea and a thoughtful meditation while watching the sunset. I love the gentle humanity and philosophy of kindness found throughout these books. After listening to Mma Ramotswe, the balance of the world always seems tilted toward the good. My chores get completed, yet I feel relaxed and happy, as if I’ve just returned from vacation in Botswana or from an audience with an African Dalai Lama. You cannot help but become a bit wiser and kinder yourself after hours with Mma Ramotswe, and thus, truthfully, with Alexander McCall Smith. He creates such amazing women characters, particularly Mma Ramotswe and Isabel Dalhousie - both of whom you’d love to join you in a ladies’ night with Oprah!

Not my favorite in the series

Slow unfolding of detective cases. Too many characters with similar/ same names

I will continue with the series and hope the next colitis better.

As always, lisette lecat is an outstanding narrator. I could listen to her reading the phone book!

Like a soothing cup of tea.

These are all lovely books. Funny, kind and satisfying. Always a happy ending. A perfect comfort in troubled times.

A wonderful visit with old friends

Precious Ramotswe's friends and family decide she needs a holiday. One clue she really does need a break may be how ready she is to suspect Mma Makutsi of a wicked desire to take the agency away from her. Sanity prevails, Rra Polopetsi, now working part-time as a science teacher, volunteers to help out while she is gone, and Mma Ramotswe commits to a two-week holiday.

But she's staying home, and the idea is to "do nothing," which Mma Ramotswe is of course incapable of.

Reorganizing her food cabinets takes some time. Tea at the President Hotel chatting with some other ladies is a good way to kill an hour or so. But on her return to her little white van, she finds it has been scratched--presumably by the boy who promised to "watch" it and "keep it safe: for the low, low price of just four pula--two on deposit. She quickly finds and catches the boy, called Samuel, and is quickly drawn into his story. The exploitative woman who has been "caring for him" and teaching him to steal and extort does not know what she has met with when Mma Ramotswe arrives at her front door.

But meanwhile, there's still the agency, and Mma Ramotswe can't help wanting to know what's going on, with Mma Makutsi in charge, and just Charlie and Rra Polopetsi to assist her.

She quickly learns that a new client has come in, the sister of a local political figure who has recently died. There's a proposal to name a street for him, but it has been stalled by the anonymous information that there is some kind of scandal in the man's past. The sister wants Mma Makutsi to find out what is really going on, so that her brother can be cleared, and honored.

Or that's what she says.

But why did Mma Makutsi take the case, start investigating, and then pass it Rra Polopetsi? Why does she refuse to budge from this when Rra Polopetsi--who, after all, is a chemist, not a detective--is clearly frustrated and distressed, distressed enough to go to Mma Ramotswe about it even though she is on holiday? And who is behind the sudden appearance of the No. 1 Ladies' College of secretarial work?

Mma Ramotswe can no more take a holiday than she can stop drinking red bush tea.

This is a wonderful visit with old friends, and as always, the mystery is really the B plot. The real meat here is the relationships among the regular characters, the growth of those characters, and the impact they have on those around them.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

Lovely book in this series

Touching and satisfying. Love the care with which each character is presented. The reading is excellent.