Precious Ramotswe, that cheerful Botswana private investigator of 'traditional build', is finally married to Mr J. L. B. Matekoni of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, her detective agency is busy and life could not be better...Well ... it could, actually. If Mma Ramotswe hadn't listened to a plea of particular misfortune, she wouldn't have suffered her own mishap - a collision between her tiny white van and a bicycle. That unfortunate crash echoes another unhappy meeting a clash of personalities. For her assistant, Mma Makutsi, has a spectacular disagreement with one of the garage apprentices. He is enraptured by a fast piece with a Mercedes, and everyone knows where that sort of thing can lead ...'There is something almost divinely appealing about the way Alexander McCall Smith writes about daily life in Botswana ... it is hard to think of a contemporary writer more genuinely engaging . . . His novels are also extremely funny: I find it impossible to think about them without smiling' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday