The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Synopsis
When Precious Ramotswe was barely eight years old she spent her days with Obed, her father, in the
wilds of Botswana learning the secrets of nature, and with that the joys of a natural inquisitiveness and
intuition.
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She learnt many things from her daddy – to use her ears when following a lion kill, to use her eyes
when tracking spoor alongside the native Bushmen hunters ... her beloved father taught her to use her
memory, he gave her a love of animals, a belief in herself, a sense of justice and, above all, the
unquenchable pleasure of solving a mystery.
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Many years later Obed dies, leaving his only daughter the first "step-up" into her new career – one
hundred and eighty cows. With this investment she decides to use all the gifts he bestowed on her, and
to become her country's first ever female detective.
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Now in her mid-30s, with a bad marriage to jazz musician Note Makoti behind her, the sassily
independent Mma Ramotswe embarks on a radical and exciting chapter in her life.
Mma Ramotswe is not deterred by the attempts by some to get her to invest her assets elsewhere and the mocking sneers of the
town gossips.
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Despite few assets – a tiny white van, two desks, two chairs, two decrepit typewriters, a teapot and
three teacups – she sets up her detective agency with a powerful sense of vocation.
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And so begins the charming story of Botswana's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency – as Mma Ramotswe
teams up with secretary Mma Makutsi – whose prim exterior and peculiar behaviour belie her super-efficiency
and unprecedented 97% grade from the Botswana College of Secretarial and Office Skills.
Together they prepare to solve the mysteries that come their way.
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Her first cases include Happy Bapetsi, who is seeking help to prove that the man claiming to be her
father, is in fact an impostor; Alice Busang and her philandering husband Kremlin; Mr Lepodise, the
bolt factory owner whose employee lost a finger in an incident; and the human bones in a glove
compartment of a Mercedes Benz belonging to the sinister Charlie Gotso.
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Along the way she's cheered on by her neighbour BK, the flamboyant hairdresser at The Last Chance
Salon and JLB Matekoni of Speedy Motors, the most unassuming and most wholesome of men who
may, or may not, turn out to be the slowest-burning suitor of all time.
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