In contemporary Botswana, sleuth Precious Ramotswe decides to go against tradition and start her own business--a detective agency. Soon she is in the thick of several perplexing cases.

With business slow at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Mma Precious Ramotswe takes a week's vacation, only to find herself helping a young boy named Samuel, all while Mma Makutsi handles a rather complicated case on her own.

"In this latest installment in the beloved No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Grace Makutsi encounters a pair of quandaries that will require all of her and Mma Ramotswe’s cleverness and generosity to resolve “An escape from life’s woes as well as a suggestion for how to make the whole deal more palatable—fragility, fruit cake, and all.” —The Boston Globe Grace Makutsi’s husband, Phuti Radiphuti, is in a bind. An international...

In the words of Alexander McCall Smith: 'You feel the rocking of the train, you hear the sound of its wheels on the rails; you are in the world rather than suspended somewhere above it. And sometimes there are conversations to be had, which is what the overarching story in this collection is all about. It is a simple device: people brought together entertain one another with tales of what happened to them on trains. It takes place on a journey I frequently...

"Scotland Street witnesses the wedding of the century of Angus Lordie to Domenica Macdonald, but as the newlyweds depart on their honeymoon, Edinburgh is in disarray. While recovering from the trauma of being best man, Matthew is taken up by a Dane called Bo. Cyril eludes his dog-sitter and embarks on an odyssey involving fox holes and the official residence of a cardinal. Narcissist Bruce meets his match in the form of a sinister doppelganger. Bertie,...

"Newlywed painter and sometime somnambulist Angus Lordie might be sleepwalking his way into trouble with Animal Welfare when he lets his dog Cyril drink a bit too much lager at the local bar. The longsuffering Bertie, on the cusp of his seventh birthday party, has taken to dreaming about his eighteenth, a time when he will be able to avoid the indignity of unwanted girl attendees and the looming threat of a gender-neutral doll from his domineering...

The latest book in Alexander McCall Smith's popular 44 Scotland Street series is a sheer delight. Summer has come to Scotland Street. The long days have prompted its denizens to engage in flights of fancy. Some, like the Duke of Johannesburgs plan to create a microlite seaplane, are literal flights, and some, like the vain Bruce Andersons idea of settling down with one of his many admirers, are more metaphorical. With the domineering Irene off pursuing...

Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld despairs over an academic rival's undeserved acclaim and stumbles into a haphazard romance with a charming widow before a mountaineering accident catapults him into unwanted fame.

"'Miss Gladden', the first female detective, is a determined and resourceful figure, with ingenious skills of logic and deduction. Pursuing mysterious cases, she works undercover and only introduces herself as a detective when the need arises. Her personal circumstances and even her real name are never revealed. This obfuscation makes sense, considering that when The female detective was first published in 1864 there were no official female detectives...

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.