The No. 1 Ladies' Detective AgencyThe No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

"This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging [African woman detective] Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to 'help people with problems in their lives.' Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone [a city located in southeast Botswana, on the edge of the Kalahari Desert in Africa], she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors."