The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith set in Botswana and featuring the character Mma Precious Ramotswe. The series is named for the first novel, published in 1998. Nineteen novels have been published in the series between 1998 and 2018. Mma Precious Ramotswe is the main character in this series. The country of Botswana is in a sense a character as well, as it is a crucial aspect of how the stories flow. Mma Ramotswe starts up her detective agency when she is 34 years old, using the inheritance from her father to move to the capital city Gaborone to buy a house for herself and find an office for her new business. She feels a detective needs to know about people more than anything, to solve problems for them. The novels are as much about the adventures and foibles of different characters as they are about solving mysteries. Each book in the series follows from the previous book. The readership was at first small, then gained abruptly in popularity in the US and in England, beyond the author's home in Scotland. In 2004, sales in English exceeded five million, and the series has been translated to other languages. Critical reception has matched the sales of the novels, generally positive, and considering the strength of the novels to be in the characters and Mma Ramotswe's wisdom rather than in the specific mysteries solved in each novel. The novels have been adapted for radio by the author and for television.