The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency- Alexander McCall Smith

Using her late father’s cattle herd as seed money, the traditionally built and endlessly resourceful Precious Ramotswe establishes the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana — the only detective agency in the country run by a woman. Her cases range from missing husbands and suspected fraudsters to something far darker involving a missing child, but Mma Ramotswe approaches each with the same weapon: an acute understanding of human nature. McCall Smith’s debut is unlike anything else in detective fiction — gentle, deeply humane, and suffused with love for Botswana’s landscapes, people, and customs. It launched one of the most beloved series in contemporary fiction, with over 20 installments translated into dozens of languages, and proved that detective fiction need not depend on violence to hold a reader’s complete attention.