Alexander McCall Smith

Wayward daughters. Missing Husbands. Philandering partners. Curious conmen. If you''ve got a problem, and no one else can help you, then pay a visit to Precious Ramotswe, Botswana''s only - and finest - female private detective. Her methods may not be conventional, and her manner not exactly Miss Marple, but she''s got warmth, wit and canny intuition on her side, not to mention Mr J. L. B. Matekoni, the charming proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. And Precious is going to need them all as she sets out on the trail of a missing child, a case that tumbles our heroine into a hotbed of strange situations and more than a little danger ...Delightfully different, THE NO.1 LADIES'' DETECTIVE AGENCY offers a captivating glimpse of an unusual world.

Recently distracted by the arrival of her and Jamie's second son, Magnus, Isabel Dalhousie - philanthropic editor of the Review of Applied Ethics - is anxious. The next issue of the Review is far from ready, her eldest, Charlie, is jealous, and their housekeeper, Grace, has an officious approach to childcare. With some relief, Isabel returns to helping out at her niece Cat's delicatessen, where surely the most taxing duty is the preparation of sandwiches.It's not long before Isabel's helpful, philosophical nature draws her into customers' problems, specifically that of ambitious, self-proclaimed matchmaker, Bea Shandon. Bea has staged a potentially dangerous liaison involving enigmatic plastic surgeon, Tony MacUspaig, who may not be quite who he claims to be - and Isabel's help is required in getting to the truth of the matter.

As the countdown to Mma Makutsi's wedding begins, all is not as it should be at the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency While investigating unpleasant occurrences on a southern cattle-post, Mma Ramotswe, always on the side of the weak against the strong, has reason to reflect on Rule No 3 of The Principles of Private Detection: never lie to the client...

Beloved and bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith lends his delightful touch to the Austen classic, Emma. 'It's comfort reading at its most soothing' Independent Sometimes it takes time to discover who you really are. And for Emma Woodhouse the journey is only just beginning. After graduating, Emma returns home to Norfolk, where she plans to set up a design business. But that summer, as Emma begins to match-make various friends and neighbours, some important lessons about life and relationships await her...

Even the arrival of her baby can't hold Mma Makutsi back from success in the workplace, and so no sooner than she becomes a full partner in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (in spite of Mma Ramotswe's belated claims that she is only 'an assistant full partner'), she also launches a new enterprise of her own, the Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe. Grace Makutsi is a lady with a business plan, but who could predict temperamental chefs, drunken waiters and more? Luckily, help is at hand, from the only person in Gaborone more gently determined than Mma Makutsi ...Mma Ramotswe, of course.

As summer blooms in Edinburgh's gardens and Bertie Pollock's birthday appears on the horizon, all at 44 Scotland Street is not cake and sunshine. Newlywed Angus Lordie has been booked by his bride into what he must not call the loony bin; Bruce's first encounter with hot wax brings more anguish than he bargained for; and Bertie's birthday dreams of scout camp and a penknife look set to be replaced by a game of Royal Weddings and a gender-neutral doll. But fate, an amorous Bedouin and the Dubai Tourist Authority conspire to transport Bertie's mother Irene to a warmer - if not a better - place, and once again in Scotland Street the triumph of human kindness over adversity gives cause for celebration.

Isabel Dalhousie thinks often of friends, sometimes of lovers, and on occasion of chocolate. As an Edinburgh philosopher she is certain of where she stands. She can review a book called In Praise of Sin with panache and conviction, but real life is...well, perhaps a bit more challenging - particularly when it comes to her feelings for Jamie, a younger man who should have married her niece, Cat. Jamie's handsomeness leaves Isabel feeling distinctly uneasy, and ethically disturbed. 'I am a philosopher', she thinks, 'but I am also a woman'. And more disturbance is in store. When Cat takes a break in Italy, Isabel agrees to run her delicatessen. One of the customers, she discovers, has recently had a heart transplant and is now being plagued by memories that cannot be rationally explained and which he feels do not belong to him. Isabel is intrigued. So intrigued that she finds herself rushing headlong into a dangerous investigation. But she still has time to think about the things that possess her - things like love and friendship, and, of course, temptation. The last of these comes in many forms - chocolate, for example, or seductive Italians...

Beloved and bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith lends his delightful touch to the Austen classic, Emma.It''s comfort reading at its most soothing IndependentPrepare to meet a young woman who thinks she knows everything.Fresh from university, Emma Woodhouse triumphantly arrives home in Norfolk ready to embark on adult life with a splash. Not only has her sister, Isabella, been whisked away on a motorcycle up to London, but her astute governess, Miss Taylor is at a loose end, abandoned in the giant family pile, Hartfield, alongside Emmas anxiety-ridden father. Someone is needed to rule the roost and young Emma is more than happy to oblige.As she gets her fledging design business off the ground, there is plenty to delight her in the buzzing little village of Highbury. At the helm of her own dinner parties and instructing her new little protegee, Harriet Smith, Emma reigns forth. But there is only one person who can play with Emmas indestructible confidence, her old friend and inscrutable neighbour George Knightly this time has Emma finally met her match?You dont have to be in London to go to parties, find amusement or make trouble. Not if youre Emma, the very big fish in the rather small pond. But for a young woman who knows everything, Emma has a lot to learn about herself.Ever alive to the uproarious nuances of human behaviour, and both the pleasures and pitfalls of village life, beloved author Alexander McCall Smiths Emma is the busybody we all know and love, and a true modern delight.

If only Pat Macgregor had an inkling of the embarrassment romantic, professional, even aesthetic that flowed from accepting narcissistic ex-boyfriend Bruce Anderson''s invitation for coffee, she would never have said yes. And if only Matthew, her boss at the art gallery, hadn''t wandered into his local bookshop and picked up a particular book at a particular time, he would never have knocked over his former English teacher or attracted the attentions of the police.Whether caused by small things such as a cup of coffee and a book, or major events such as Stuart''s application for promotion and his wife Irene''s decision to go off and study for a PhD in Aberdeen, change is coming to serial fiction''s favourite street. But for three seven-year-old boys Bertie Pollock, Ranald Braveheart Macpherson, and Big Lou''s foster son Finlay - it also means a getting a glimpse of perfect happiness.

Six weeks to write for your life... In this blistering story of a ghostwriter haunted by his demonic subject, the Man Booker Prize winner turns to lies, crime and literature with devastating effect A young and penniless writer, Kif Kehlmann, is rung in the middle of the night by the notorious con man and corporate criminal, Siegfried Heidl. About to go to trial for defrauding the banks of $700 million, Heidl proposes a deal: $10,000 for Kehlmann to ghostwrite his memoir in six weeks. Kehlmann accepts but begins to fear that he is being corrupted by Heidl. As the deadline draws closer, he becomes ever more unsure if he is ghostwriting a memoir, or if Heidl is rewriting him-his life, his future. Everything that was certain grows uncertain as he begins to wonder: who is Siegfried Heidl-and who is Kif Kehlmann? By turns compelling, comic and chilling, First Person is a haunting journey into the heart of our age.

This novel has the usual combination of light-hearted gentleness and forensic acuity, reminding the reader never to underestimate McCall Smith's fundamental seriousness of purpose * Sydney Morning Herald * This novel has the usual combination of light-hearted gentleness and forensic acuity, reminding the reader never to underestimate McCall Smith's fundamental seriousness of purpose * Sydney Morning Herald * While My Italian Bulldozer certainly advocates a kind, considerate, some might even say old-fashioned approach to resolving affairs of the heart, it also succeeds in subtly, almost imperceptibly ripping up the traditional rules of the romantic comedy and creating something refreshingly original * Scotsman * While My Italian Bulldozer certainly advocates a kind, considerate, some might even say old-fashioned approach to resolving affairs of the heart, it also succeeds in subtly, almost imperceptibly ripping up the traditional rules of the romantic comedy and creating something refreshingly original * Scotsman *

Bertie's respite from his overbearing mother, Irene, is over. She has returned from the middle-east, only to discover that her son has been exposed to the worst evils of cartoons, movies and Irn Bru, and her wrath falls upon her unfortunate husband, Stuart. Meanwhile, Bruce has fallen in love with someone other than himself; Big Lou wants to adopt her beloved Finlay; Matthew and Elspeth host the Duke of Johannesburg for supper and Bertie decides he wants to move out of Scotland Street altogether and live with his grandmother, Nicola.

When a new detective agency opens in town, Precious Romotswe has an unexpected problem - competition. At the same time her assistant, Mma Makutsi, has problems of her own. As always, solutions can be found at Botswana's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, thanks to the sensible Mma Ramotswe and plenty of Red Bush Tea

With a failed marriage behind her, La -- short for Lavender -- moves to the Suffolk countryside on the eve of the Second World War to nurse her broken heart. Lonely and at a loss, a friend encourages her to bring the villagers and the men from the local airbase together by forming an amateur orchestra. One of her musician recruits is Feliks, a handsome and enigmatic Polish refugee. A friendship begins to blossom between the two, and La finds her feelings stirring to life again. Poignant, tender and inspiring, La''s Orchestra Saves the World celebrates the power of love and friendship in the shadow of the collective tragedy of war, as well as the extraordinary healing power of music.

It is a troublesome fact on which even Mma Ramotswe and her assistant Mma Makutsi agree: there are things that men know and ladies do not, and vice versa. It is unfortunate, for example, when Mma Ramotswe''s newest client is the big-shot owner of the ailing Kalahari Swoopers, that one thing lady detectives know very little about is football. And when the glamorous Violet Sephotho sets her sights on Mma Makutsi''s unsuspecting fiance, it becomes exasperatingly clear that some men do not know how to recognise a ruthless Jezebel even when she is bouncing up and down on the best bed in the Double Comfort Furniture Shop. In her attempt to foster understanding between the sexes and find the traitor on Mr Football''s team, Mma Ramotswe ventures into new territory, drinks tea in unfamiliar kitchens and learns to trust in the observational powers of small boys. And, as wise and warm-hearted as his heroine, Alexander McCall Smith reminds us that we must dig deep to uncover the goodness of the human heart.

En su segunda aventura, la detective Precious Ramotswe deberá poner a prueba toda su intuición y su sensibilidad para resolver su caso más complicado: la desaparición de un americano en los límites del Kalahari Pero, ademas, Precious debe atender a las preocupaciones, mas cercanas, de su propio hogar: la promocion de su secretaria Mma Makutsi a la mareante posicion de detective auxiliar, su inminente boda con el maravilloso J.L.B. Matekoni, el problema causado por la falta de escrupulos de su criada y la llegada inesperada no de una sino de dos adiciones a la familia MatekoniUna trama original para una novela diferente, que nos muestra un continente africano alejado de los cliches.

Isabel Dalhousie is a new mother and a connoisseur of philosophy; she'd rather not be a sleuth. But when a chance conversation at a dinner party draws Isabel into the case of a doctor whose career has been ruined, she cannot ignore what may be a miscarriage of justice. Because for Isabel ethics are not theoretical at all, but an everyday matter of life and death. As she attempts to unravel the truth behind Dr Thompson's disgrace, Isabel's patient intelligence is also required to deal with challenges in her own life. There is her baby son Charlie; Cat's deli to look after, not to mention her vulnerable assistant Eddie; and a mysterious and unlikeable composer who has latched on to Jamie, making Isabel fear for the future of her new family. Isabel treads a difficult path between trust and gullibility, philanthropy and interference, while keeping in her sights the small but certain comforts of family, philosophy and a fine Saturday morning.