Wayward daughters. Missing husbands. Philandering partners. If you've got a problem, and no one else can help you, then pay a visit to Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's only female private detective. Her methods may not be conventional, but she's got warmth, wit and canny intuition on her side.

"The Miss Marple of Botswana." -- The New York Times Book Review

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency consists of one woman, the engaging and sassy Precious Ramotswe, who sets up shop in Gaborone, Botswana. A cross between Kinsey Millhone and Miss Marple, this unlikely heroine specialises in missing husbands, wayward daughters, con men and imposters. When she sets out on the trail of a missing child she is tumbled headlong into some strange situations and not a little danger.

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 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, 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.

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.