 First edition | |
| Author | Alexander McCall Smith |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency |
| Genre | Detective novel, mystery novel |
| Publisher | Polygon Books |
Publication date | 2000 |
| Publication place | Scotland |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 227 |
| ISBN | 978-0-7486-6273-9 First Edinburgh edition |
| OCLC | 49495035 |
| 823 /.914 21 | |
| LC Class | PR6063.C326 T4 2002 |
| Preceded by | The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency |
| Followed by | Morality for Beautiful Girls |
Tears of the Giraffe is the second in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Botswana, which features the Motswana protagonist Precious Ramotswe.
The agency takes on two cases, one involving a college-aged boy who disappeared ten years earlier, and the other a local man who does not understand why his wife is so long away from home each day. The engagement of Mma Ramotswe and Mr JLB Matekoni endures, as he gets her a diamond engagement ring, and takes on two children from the orphan farm. A crime against Mma Ramotswe does not come off, leading the culprit, maid to her fiancé, to prison instead.
One reviewer finds the writing both dignified and humorous, and describes the protagonist as imperturbable.[1] Another quotes a dialogue in this novel as an excellent example how the author "plays the two cultures against each other" evenhandedly, the two cultures being the West and the "primitive" country of Botswana.[2] The satire in the conversation is remarked as worthy of Mark Twain.[2]