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Book Summary and Reviews of The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith

The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith

The Colors of All the Cattle

No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #19

by Alexander McCall Smith

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  • Nov 2018, 240 pages
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Book Summary

In this latest installment of the beloved and best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Precious Ramotswe finds herself running for office - much to her dismay.

When Mma Potokwane suggests to Mma Ramotswe that she run for a seat on the Gaborone City Council, Mma Ramotswe is at first reluctant. But when she learns that developers plan to build the flashy Big Fun Hotel next to a graveyard, she allows herself to be persuaded. Her opponent is none other than Mma Makutsi's old nemesis, Violet Sephotho, who is in the pocket of the hotel developers. Although Violet is intent on using every trick in the book to secure her election, Mma Ramotswe refuses to guarantee anything beyond what she can deliver; hence her slogan: "I can't promise anything - but I shall do my best."

Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe has acquired a new client: one of her late father's old friends, who was the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Charlie volunteers to be the lead investigator in the case to prove he's ready to be more than an apprentice, as well as to impress a new girlfriend. With Charlie's inquiries landing him in hot water and Election Day fast approaching, Mma Ramotswe will have to call upon her good humor and gen­erosity of spirit to help the community navigate these thorny issues, and to prove that honesty and compassion will always carry the day.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Amusingly revealing of Mwa Ramotswe's character are the relentlessly honest answers she gives to a reporter who interviews her before the election. Smith continues to bring joy to his readers through his insights into the human heart." - Publishers Weekly

"A lesser light in a series that still shines very brightly." - Booklist

"Readers familiar with this venerable series (The House of Unexpected Sisters, 2017, etc.) will know that the race will be run in McCall Smith's own patented tempo. But it bears all the quiet weight they'd expect before reaching a particularly appropriate ending." - Kirkus

This information about The Colors of All the Cattle was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Cloggie Downunder

Delightfully entertaining.
“There were some people cut out for politics, but she was sure she was not one of them. She believed in reconciliation and compromise; politicians seemed to believe only in the routing of their opponents. That was not the way she saw the world. It was not the way her father, the late Obed Ramotswe, had seen it either. It was not the way, she was sure, that the ancestors had viewed things. It was not the Botswana way.”

The Colours of All The Cattle is the nineteenth book in the popular No 1 Ladies Detective Agency by British author, Alexander McCall Smith. Life is good in Mma Precious Ramotswe’s Botswana, although there are always some concerns: plans for a dubious hotel proposal next to the cemetery are a worry; the hit-and-run case in Mochudi, on which the police have given up, is offering no clues; and the vacancy on the city’s council may be filled by Grace Makutsi’s least favourite person if no one stands against her.

It seems that the consensus of opinion of those around her is that the only person in Gabarone who could win against the notorious Violet Sepotho is Mma Ramotswe, and her bossy friend Sylvia Potokwani effectively bullies Precious into standing. Her later attempt to withdraw is sabotaged by her sense of duty to the people of Botswana. The self-appointed campaign committee has some wonderfully amusing meetings. Precious campaigns on a platform of honesty, making no rash promises, but vowing to do her best, and she is genuinely overwhelmed, and somewhat dismayed, by the response from voters.


In this instalment: Charlie, detective-in-training and part-time mechanic, uses a frowned-upon (by Mma Ramotswe) method to obtain information, which gets him into more trouble than he had ever imagined possible; seeking information about a corrupt developer, Mma Makutsi naively undertakes a covert operation, but with less success that she had hoped; Charlie has a girlfriend, and this time things look serious, but Queenie-Queenie has not been entirely honest with him. Mma Makutsi’s shoes murmur advice; and Mma Ramotswe again demonstrates her unfailing kindness and generosity.

As always, McCall Smith gives the reader a novel that has humour and wisdom, insightful observations and heartfelt emotion. Delightfully entertaining.

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Author Information

Alexander McCall Smith Author Biography

Alexander McCall Smith began the now highly successful 'No 1 Ladies Detective Agency' series in 1996, after being inspired by the sight of a 'traditionally built' Botswanan lady chasing down a chicken for a meal. The first book in the series - 'The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency' was published in the UK in 1998 but didn't arrive in the USA until 2001.

Known to his friends as Sandy, McCall Smith describes the Botswanans as 'genuinely courteous people' He knows Botswana well as he grew up there and also spent several years on the law faculty of the University of Botswana; his volume on the legal system of Botswana (The Criminal Law of Botswana) remains the definitive and in fact, only book on the subject.

In 2004 he published the first in a...

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