Alexander McCall Smith

Related Content

• Alexander McCall Smith cancels talk at the State Theatre
  April 20, 2010
• Twin Cities Book Festival, thrash metal: Freeloader Friday
  October 15, 2010

More About

• Precious Ramotswe
• Isabel Dalhousie
• Alexander McCall Smith
• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

While Alexander McCall Smith is the mind behind many fictional series (including The 44 Scotland Street series, The Isabel Dalhousie series, and The Portuguese Irregular Verbs series), he is perhaps best known for his The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels. The Detective series takes place in Botswana and follows the adventures of "traditionally built" and ever-magnanimous Precious Ramotswe and her assistant, Grace Makutsi. While Ramotswe tracks down missing people, uncovers con men, and reveals the moral character of beauty queens, our heroine also dispenses comforting advice ("Never be put off by rudeness. It is the rude person that is rude. Not you.") and cups of red bush tea. In the most recent installment, The Double Comfort Safari Club, Ramotswe must venture to the Okavanga Delta to track down a kind guide who's earned an inheritance from a one-time client (from St. Paul, no less), but not before helping Makutsi fend off the possessive aunt of her fiancée and determining the fidelity of two friends. It's all in a day's work for the intrepid detective. (Photo by Tara Murphy)
Mon., April 26, 7:30 p.m., 2010