Human nature is so predictable….even in a little corner of Botswana. I shook my head when I read about the seemingly petty jealousy Precious had to deal with. As is always the case, the world over, there’s a reason for a behaviour…and Precious graciously waits and finds it out. I could learn from her. I’m a reactor rather than a responder. I need to change that. Now.

These scenarios make up the 'detective' parts of the book. The remainder of the novel is mostly about Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi going about their business; Mma Ramotswe's inner musings; and the characters drinking tea and having rambling conversations.An escape from life’s woes as well as a suggestion for how to make the whole deal more palatable—fragility, fruit cake, and all.” —The Boston Globe Thank you, NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada, and Knopf Canada, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. I read No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels for philosophical asides such as this: It was a curious thing, she thought, that a person's eyes should tell you so much about what was going on inside them. There were so many ways in which people might reveal their thoughts and emotions — gestures of the hands, smiles, shrugs. The repertoire of human body language was an extensive one. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi happen to meet Mma Makutsi's old friend Patience, who came to Gaborone from Bobonong. Mma Ramotswe discusses this with her husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, during the special half-hour when the sun is setting and the spouses are relaxing on their verandah.

THE AUTHOR: Alexander McCall Smith is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and he was a law professor at the University of Botswana. He lives in Scotland. The novels of Alexander McCall Smith aren't yet prescribed on the NHS, but it might not be a bad idea' Daily TelegraphEXCERPT: Mma Ramotswe sighed. There was so much wrong with the world. There were so many cases of people behaving badly in one way or another, of people doing things that they should not do, and the more we scrutinised what was going on around us, the more we discovered of just this sort of thing. Under every stone, she sometimes thought, there is bound to be a scorpion. It was important, she felt, to keep your working life separate from your home life; she knew far too many people who allowed the cares of the job to intrude upon their home life, and these were the people who tended to become depressed or suffer from something that she had recently read about in a magazine - something referred to as burn-out.’ Most people longed for the day when they might tune into a news broadcast and hear the announcer say, 'I'm sorry, everybody, but nothing has happened. There is no news today none at all.' That day had never come to pass, as far as she knew, but you could still hope. That was what you could always do - no matter how bad things seemed to be - you could hope.’