Precious and Grace

Precious and Grace

ISBN: 9781101972816
Publisher: Anchor Books (Penguin Random House)
Publication Date: First published 10 November 2016 by Pantheon (Penguin Random House)

The seventeenth book in the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.

One bright morning, Precious Ramotswe—head of Botswana’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency—receives a visitor: a woman from Australia. This woman asks Precious to take on a case: to find the nursemaid who raised her during her childhood in Botswana. The woman wants to thank her for being such an important part of her life. Precious has a history of successfully solving cases, but this one proves difficult and throws up a number of surprises and challenges.

Back in her office, next door to the Speedy Motors Garage on Twokleng Road, Precious also has a team to manage: Mr Polopetsi, a part-time science teacher and new assistant at the agency; she mentors Charlie, a former apprentice and young man too handsome and charming for his own good—a man who has gotten himself in deep water; and then there is Precious’s tumultuous but heart-warming friendship with her co-director, the fiery Grace Makutsi.

Precious and Grace is a story about being a detective, the complexities of human nature, as well as lessons about gratitude and obligation.

Reviews

‘Very few authors can write about forgiveness and do it with grace. Alexander McCall Smith is one of them. He writes with a philosophy infused with gentleness, whether it is about an orphaned dog or a woman who is brought to realize that there is still happiness in bitter memories.’
The Washington Times
‘a book steeped with addictive charm, wit and intelligent sleuthing’
Lovereading.co.uk
‘Botswana-set Precious and Grace moves along effortlessly, like a high-spec car, and one’s sole regret is that the the ride couldn’t have gone on for longer’
The Herald, Books of the Year 2016
‘our heroines’ latest adventures are told in McCall Smith’s signature charming and deceptively simple prose. McCall Smith leads the reader to surprising insights into the healing power of compassion, forgiveness, and new beginnings.’ 
Mysterypeople.com