The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency

Wow ! What a great and refreshingly different book! "The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency", by Alexander McCall Smith, is set in Botswana (which in itself always makes me recall some of the nostalgic stories a great-uncle of mine, who used to live in Mozambique and then South Africa, told us about that part of Africa). In Botswana lives Precious Ramotswe, the adored and only daughter of Obed Ramotswe, the unfortunate, abused and abandoned wife of Note Mokoti, and, briefly, the mother of a premature angel that did not make it in this world. After the death of her Daddy, Precious decides to open a Detective Agency with the money she inherited: the first such agency in Botswana that is owned and run by a woman. Women, as everyone knows, have much better eye for detail and are much more inquisitive than men, so Precious has little trouble solving some of the most insolit mysteries that are presented to her.
Lovely, intelligent and rather fat (size 22) Precious has a couple of marriage pretenders but she's done with marriage and all that jazz (although she does enjoy her male friends's company).
Incredibly heart warming and funny novel, written in a very simple an appealing style. Truly recommended reading for anyone !

Synopsis

Wayward daughters. Missing Husbands. Philandering partners. Curious conmen. If you've got a problem, and no one else can help you, then pay a visit to Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's only - and finest - female private detective. 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. Maketoni, the charming proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. And Precious is going to need them all as she sets out on the trail of a missing child, a case that tumbles our heroine into a hotbed of strange situations and more than a little danger ...Delightfully different, THE NO.1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY offers a captivating glimpse of an unusual world.