Another Miss Marple ???

Born in 1928 at the age of 70, Jane Marple is a softly-spoken spinster who resides in the tiny village of St. Mary Mead somewhere in the U. K.  Neatly dressed in tweed with her ever present hat, Agatha Christie’s leading lady gets more likable as she grows older.

Touted as “The Miss Marple of Botswana” by the New York Times Book Review, Mma Precious Ramotswe came to life in Gaborone just recently, 1999 to be exact.  For her workday attire, the 35-year-old lady detective chooses  from a vast wardrobe of elaborately patterned A-line dresses in the rich African hues of orange, yellow and green.  Rarely is she seen in the HBO series without a bright headband, or intricately knotted scarf covering her dark hair.

Wherein lies the link between these two very different fictional characters?

While Miss Maple might be a tall, thin English lady with white curls arranged around her crinkled pink face,  Mma Ramotswe is described as a traditionally built African woman, size 22.   Pushing these obviously diverse physical characteristics aside, the reader soon discovers that both  ladies rely strongly on their powers of observation.

“My hobby is studying people, ” claimed Miss Marple, “human nature if you will.” As one of the guests At Bertram’s Hotel (1965) observed, “She sees everything”.

At the age of four, Precious “watched everybody and everything with her wide solemn eyes”. With the cousin’s help, “the qualities of curiosity and awareness were nurtured in the child’s mind”.

While visiting the ruins of a long defunct agricultural experiment (Tears ofthe Giraffe, 2000), the perceptive lady detective feels that she’s very close to understanding what had happened there to the missing Michael Curtin.  Unable to voice her feelings, Mma Ramotswe  knew that his spirit lingered there in that place.

As if respectful of her character’s advanced age,  Dame Agatha Christie seldom pushes her elderly sleuth physically into an investigation.  Miss Marple rarely steps center stage.  Instead she prefers to quietly observe, ask polite questions and drop a few selected stitches from her knitting needles.

In The Mirror Crack’d (1962) Miss Marple leaves her home no more than three times throughout the entire novel.  Recovering from a bout of bronchitis,  the English spinster could not attend the fete at Gossington Hall.  Kept abreast of local gossip by Mrs. Bantry, former owner of the hall; Ms. Knight, the overbearing nurse/companion and Chief Inspector Dermot Craddock, Miss Marple solves the triple murder and sends Gladys, the dressmaking canteen worker, to Bournemouth, to prevent her from being killed, too.

Describing herself as a strong woman,  Mma Ramotswe advances far beyond the information gathering process making momentous decisions about the case under investigation.

For example, in the case of the woman whose husband had acquired a stolen Mercedes Benz, she calls her policeman friend, Billy Pilani, and arranges for the return of the car to its owner. (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, 1999, & Tears of the Giraffe, 2000)

Additionally, she decided  not to report the fraudulent insurance claims of the man with thirteen fingers to the police.  (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, 1999, & Tears of the Giraffe, 2000)

Critics have often criticized Christie’s disregard of the lush tropical settings found in such books as A Caribbean Mystery (1964) in order to direct the reader’s focus firmly on the characters.  Even  though Miss Marple had been sent to  the luxurious Golden Palm Hotel on the Caribbean island of St. Honere by her doting nephew Raymond West, she expressed discontent.   “So many palm trees.  Everything the same every day–never anything happening.”

Not true of author, Alexander McCall Smith, who exalts in the scenery and people of Botswana.   He places the unoccupied Mma Ramotswe under her acacia tree in the dust with the chickens.  On another occasion, a snake crawls into the motor of her tiny white van.  Dust covers everything, even car parts, except in the rainy season when everything turns green once more.  Setting The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series  anywhere else would rip the  heart from the  delightful stories.

( A favorite shot, repeated frequently in the HBO series, pictures  the small white van (truck) flying down a long, deserted highway kicking up a rich red plume of dust as it quickly moves off into the distance.)

Both lady detectives live reluctantly in the modern world but revere the manners, politeness and morality of the past.  The soon-to-be wife of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni and mother of two orphaned children, Precious yearns for her father who “would have shown them the old Botswana morality and brought them to an understanding of what it is to live an honourable life”.

Wealthy novelist nephew Raymond often accuses  his dear Aunt Jane of burying her “head in the sand like a very delightful ostrich”.  Sending modern novels only exasperated the maiden lady even more.  ” So difficult–all about unpleasant people, doing such very odd things and not, apparently, even enjoying them.”

Whether it be woman’s intuition, gossip, or just plain observation, both female sleuths display an amazing ability to solve the problems created by their respective authors.  Which is your favorite?

**A complete listing of Agatha Christie’s mysteries featuring Miss Marple can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Marple.