House - The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Gaborone - Botswana

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is a series of novels by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith.

The agency is located in Gaborone, capital of Botswana. Its founder is a Motswana woman, Mma Precious Ramotswe, who features as the stories’ protagonist and main detective. Mma is a Setswana term of respect for a woman; the equivalent term for a man is Rra.

The episodic novels are as much about the adventures and foibles of different characters as they are about solving mysteries. Each book in the series follows on from the previous book. They have been adapted for radio and television.

Precious Ramotswe, a kind and cheerful woman of traditional build, is the founder of Botswana’s first and only female-run detective agency. Her methods may not be conventional, and her manner not exactly Miss Marple, but she’s got warmth, wit and canny intuition on her side, not to mention Mr J. L. B. Matekoni, the charming proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. And Precious is going to need all of those assets as she sets out to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart—is that of a missing eleven-year-old boy who may have been snatched by witch doctors.

Delightfully different, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is a captivating glimpse into an unusual world.

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency received two Booker Judges’ Special Recommendations and was voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement.

Alexander McCall Smith
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