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Tears of the Giraffe
Alexander McCall Smith Book Review

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Plot Summary of Tears of the Giraffe
"Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's first and only female private detective, has been handed her most difficult case to date: to find out what happened to a young American who disappeared on the edge of the Kalahari desert 10 years ago. She investigates the case, using her common sense and knowledge of human nature, along with a little bit of guile. In the meantime, her fiancé, Mr. Matekoni, gets talked into taking in a pair of orphans, and becomes worried that Precious may break off the engagement because he didn't tell her until afterwards. Meanwhile, his housemaid plots to get rid of Precious so she can continue to meet her male “friends” at Mr. Matekoni's house during the day. Last, but not least, Precious' secretary, Mma Makutsi, gets promoted to assistant detective and gets her first case.
Although there is a fair amount of detective work in the story, it is much more a study of character and human nature than it is a crime mystery.
"

Jóhanna, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Tears of the Giraffe
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - upbeat
Time/era of story - 1980's-1999
Inside culture (main char) - Black
Crime & Police story Yes
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Outside culture (society) - African Black
If story of urban/rural... - Small town life
Ethnic/regional/gender life Yes
Woman's story? Yes

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - private investigator
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality - Black
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - quite fatty

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status: - servant
Eccentric/Smart/Dumb: Yes
Eccentric: - dumb
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Intelligence - Dumb

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 5 ()
Africa Yes
Kind of Africa: - Black Africa
Desert? Yes
City? Yes

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
Most similar books to Tears of the Giraffe
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
Long Train to the Redeeming Sin by Kola Boof
Mikela: Memoirs of a Maasai Woman by Jacyee Aniagolu-Johnson
Anyone Who Has a Heart by Jacqueline Powell


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Alexander McCall Smith Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Jóhanna  

SCHOLARS:
David Gordon  David Loftus  Chris Curtis  Rebecca Reissman  


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