Point of View

The narrative unfolds primarily from the third person, past tense point of view, focusing on the experiences and perspectives of its central character, detective Precious Ramotswe. This particular point of view (the "limited" perspective) is often used in mystery novels (of which this book is a variation), drawing the reader into the mystery by placing him/her in a similar position to the detective. In other words, the reader discovers what the detective discovers as s/he discovers it. That said, there are also occasions when the narrative describes Mma Ramotswe's actions without letting the reader in on what she's doing, or why. A vivid example of this can be found in Chapter 5, when it's not entirely clear what Mma Ramotswe plans to do with the dog but is clearly up to SOMETHING. This variation on the technique, which might be described as keeping the detective's...