“Precious Ramotswe ” is Botswana’s only female private investigator – the main character of the “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith. I noticed a few years back that Ms Ramotswe and the authors name were listed week after week on the SF & Bay area California paper back bestseller list. “Precious” just sort of kept catching my eye and I got curious. I discovered that the Botswana detective has a worldwide cult following.
The author was born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, practiced law in Scotland and when McCall returned to Zimbabwe, he began to write about a red bush tea drinking female private eye – “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency“. In this, and the books that followed in the series, our lady sleuth tracks down wayward husbands, missing children and solves village mysteries all the while keeping to the traditions of her culture and maintaining the standards of both Queen Elizabeth and Nelson Mandela (she admires both).
Books in the series:
* 1998 The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
* 2000 Tears Of The Giraffe
* 2001 Morality for Beautiful Girls
* 2002 The Kalahari Typing School for Men
* 2004 The Full Cupboard of Life
* 2004 In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
* 2006 Blue Shoes and Happiness
* 2007 The Good Husband of Zebra Drive