TheJoy and Light Bus Company

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of over one hundred books on a wide array of subjects, including the award-winning The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. He is also the author of the Isabel Dalhousie novels and the world's longest-running serial novel, 44 Scotland Street. His books have been translated into forty-six languages. Alexander McCall Smith is Professor Emeritus of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and holds honorary doctorates from thirteen universities.

Catch up on the latest from Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi and other favourites in this new instalment of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.
"Mma Ramotswe is a glorious creation" Mail on Sunday

Mma Ramotswe knows she is very lucky indeed. She has a loving family, good friends and a thriving business doing what she enjoys most: helping people. But the latest mystery she is called upon to solve is distinctly trickier than it initially appears, and, of course, there's plenty to handle in her personal life between Charlie and his new bride and Mma Makutsi and her talking shoes.

In the end, Mma Ramotswe's patience and common-sense will win out, and, without a doubt, all will be the better for it.
"Full of delight" Sunday Herald
"Hugely enjoyable" Sunday Times

Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi, Gaborone's No. 1 Lady Detectives, do not always agree on important issues - one being the complex male psyche. Mma Ramotswe is reminded of this when ­her husband, J. L. B. Matekoni, is offered a daunting business opportunity; one which, if it fails, threatens their existing livelihood, including the detective agency. Somehow, Precious must guide her husband to the right decision, while being mindful of how much he wants The Joy and Light Bus Company to succeed.

Meanwhile, there are other problems to solve. A wealthy client's elderly father has changed his will, making his devoted live-in nurse a significant beneficiary, and the ladies are tasked with uncovering the woman as a fraud. And then there is the disturbing rumoured maltreatment of children living and working on a local farm, which a concerned Mma Ramotswe is intent on investigating.

"Full of delight"
Sunday Herald

"Hugely enjoyable"
Sunday Times

Little, Brown/Abacus has sold more than 12 million copies of Alexander McCall Smith's books. This is the twenty-second book in the perennially adored The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.Everything about [McCall Smith] is appealing. He's just full of delight - it just bubbles out of him The hypnotic ease of McCall Smith's style makes everything clear almost instantly McCall Smith's familiar tone of wry amusement permeates the narrative, as does the detective's wisdom . . . hugely enjoyable Mma Ramotswe is a glorious creation, a character likely to prove every bit as enduring as Miss Marple or Hercule PoirotAn ultra-smooth ride . . . almost more blissful than even McCall Smith's millions of regular devotees could pray for or hope Blake may have been able to see the world in a grain of sand, but McCall Smith can encapsulate the human condition in a plate of stewed pumpkin. His talent is to see the god in small things Equally as brilliant as the previous editions. . . . McCall Smith writes with deceptive simplicity, yet his work is laced with worthy insight, and dry, yet charming, humour.