Alexander McCall Smith

If you are the founder and managing director of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, you may expect complete strangers to approach you with their problems when they see you having dinner with your husband in a peri-peri restaurant. And if you are Precious Ramotswe, you are a kind and helpful person who will be willing to take on a quest to find the relatives of a man who, many years ago, left the country for the uncertainties and dangers of a distant...

"Mr. J.L.B. Matekone is unsure about how to grow the successful Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. When an old friend approaches him about a new business venture, Mr. Matekone would need to mortgage his property to pursue this endeavor. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi wonder what this will mean for his current business--as well as their own. And Botswana's premier detective agency agree to investigate when a concerned son learns that his aging father's nurse...

"The summer after university, Emma Woodhouse returns home to the village of Highbury, where she will live with her health-conscious father until she is ready to launch her interior-design business and strike out on her own. In the meantime, she will do what she does best: offer guidance to those less wise in the ways of the world than herself. Happily, this summer brings many new faces to Highbury and into the sphere of Emma's not always perfectly...

Hoping to reclaim a van that was featured in a possible prophetic dream, Precious and Grace find themselves helping an apprentice of Phuti Radiphuti, investigating a cattle poisoning, and considering Grace's possible marriage to Phuti.

Now that the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is firmly established, founder Precious Ramotswe faces new challenges at home and at work--from problems with her adopted son to a sexist rival who is opening a detective agency across town.

There is considerable excitement at The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. A cobra has been found in Precious Ramotswe's office. Then a nurse from a local clinic reveals that faulty blood-pressure readings are being recorded. And Botswana has a new advice columnist, Aunty Emang, whose advice is rather curt for Mma Ramotswe's taste. All this means a lot of work for our heroine and her assistant, Grace Makutsi. But there's trouble brewing in Mma Makutsi's...

As the temperature rises in Gaborone, Precious Ramotswe, founder of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, wonders whether the heat could be the reason that business is particularly slow. But then a distant cousin of Mma Ramotswe's comes to the agency with a plea for help and the ladies decide to pursue the issue together. Armed with Mma Ramotswe's circumspection and Mma Makutsi's sharp eye, they proceed with confidence and open hearts. What, after all,...

"Mma Ramotswe reconnects with an old friend who has been having problems with her daughter. Though Precious feels compelled to lend a hand, she discovers that getting involved in family affairs is always a delicate proposion. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni finds himself embroiled in familial drama as well, when one of his clients asks for help evicting an unwanted houseguest who turns out to be the man's own brother. Elsewhere, Charlie and Fanwell are also involved...

In the ninth mystery of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Precious Ramotswe visits a game preserve to uncover the truth about an elderly American traveler whose safari proves to be his last journey.

Precious Ramotswe uses her formidable detection talents to track down her tiny white van--sold by her estimable husband Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni and stolen from its new owner--while simultaneously helping to explain the dreadful losing streak of a local football team and smoothing out a snag in Mma Makutsi's engagement to Mr Phuti Radiphut.