Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

The 10th! instalment in this infinitely enjoyable series finds the ever-charming, ever-resourceful Mma Ramostwe helping people, and vans, with problems in their lives.Mma Ramotswes tiny white van has developed a disturbing noise. But having made numerous repairs to the van over the years, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni her estimable husband and mechanic nonpareil sells it without telling her and presents her with a new, characterless vehicle. So Mma Ramotswe sets out to recover the van. . . .In the meantime, the thoroughly unpleasant, yet glamorous, Violet Sephotho (who earned 50 percent, at most!, in the final examinations of the Botswana Secretarial College) gets herself a job at the Double Comfort Furniture Store. Why? The reason is obvious: to make a play for Mma Makutsis fianc, Mr Phuti Radiphuti.And a proprietor of a local football team has enlisted the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency to help explain their dreadful losing streak: surely someone is fixing the games it cant just be a case of unskilled players . . . This is a job for Charlie, ever-apprentice at the Speedy Motors, to sniff out the competence of the players, as an assistant detective. . . .From the Hardcover edition.