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The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party

Part of No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series

Author Alexander McCall Smith
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Paperback
$16.00 US
Knopf | Anchor
On sale Mar 06, 2012 | 240 Pages | 978-0-307-47298-4
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  • English > Comparative Literature: African > African Literature
  • Interdisciplinary Studies > Race and Ethnic Studies > African Literature and Drama
  • About
  • Excerpt
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In this latest installment in the charming, bestselling series, Precious Ramotswe faces two confounding cases: the mysterious fate of some cows, and the ghost-like reappearance of her dear old white van.

As Mma Ramotswe investigates the deaths of cows at a cattle post outside Gaborone, she finds herself also pursuing other mysteries closer to home. One of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s apprentices appears to have gotten a girl pregnant, and has run away to avoid marrying her. Meanwhile, Precious sees her beloved old van—sent to the junkyard long ago—trundling around the city again. Has the van been miraculously revived, or is she hallucinating? Further complicating matters are Violet Sephotho’s newly launched campaign for a seat in Botswana’s parliament, and Grace Makutsi’s growing fears that she’ll never be able to marry her fiancé Phuti Radiphuti if she can’t find the perfect pair of wedding shoes. As ever, Precious will draw on her trademark grace and wisdom as she helps unravel all these tangled threads.

“This is Mr. McCall Smith at his benevolent best.”—The Washington Times

“A visit with a cast of characters who seem like old and cherished friends.” —St. Petersburg Times

“Charming and hilarious. . . . McCall Smith’s world is . . . a sweet and timeless bubble with its own morality, language, and customs. Entering it can be a source of great comfort.” —The Seattle Times

“Mma Ramotswe’s fictional adventures and the lives of her fellow characters weave together like the intricate patterns of baskets. . . . Readers will come home from The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party well fed, well danced, and well hoping that Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi will be back.” —Sacramento Book Review

“[McCall Smith] again makes the sublime look easy. . . . [He] has few peers in capturing the quiet moments of people’s lives, and his empathetic lead has one of the biggest hearts in modern literature.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Endearing, amusing . . . sparkles with African sunshine and wit.” —The Dallas Morning News

“Irresistible.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Utterly charming and compulsively readable.” —Newsweek

“The pleasure of these sweet books lies in the clarity and gravity with which the characters reason through everyday dilemmas.” —Entertainment Weekly

“A potent mix of charm and whimsy.” —The Christian Science Monitor

“There is no murder, no international complications, no thrill a minute. Instead, the pace is slow, the geography appreciated in a quiet way, the small details celebrated—that is the pleasure of this series. All we need is a cup of red bush tea to complete the picture.” —San Jose Mercury News

“Satisfying—and surprising. . . . Will please fans and win converts.”—The Free Lance-Star

CHAPTER ONE
 
THE MEMORY OF LOST THINGS
 
Mma Ramotswe had by no means forgotten her late white van. It was true that she did not brood upon it, as some people dwell on things of the past, but it still came to mind from time to time, often at unexpected moments. Memories of that which we have lost are curious things—weeks, months, even years may pass without any recollection of them and then, quite suddenly, some­thing will remind us of a lost friend, or of a favourite possession that has been mislaid or destroyed, and then we will think: Yes, that is what I had and I have no longer.
 
Her van had been her companion and friend for many years. Can a vehicle—a collection of mechanical bits and pieces, nuts and bolts and parts the names of which one has not the faintest idea of—can such a thing be a friend? Of course it can: physical objects can have personalities, at least in the eyes of their owners. To others, it may only be a van, but to the owner it may be the friend that has started loyally each morning—except sometimes; that has sat patiently during long hours of waiting outside the houses of suspected adulterers; that has carried one home in the late afternoon, tired after a day’s work at the No. 1 Ladies’ Detec­tive Agency. And just like a person, a car or a van may have likes and dislikes. A good tar road is balm to man and machine and may pro­duce a humming sound of satisfaction in both car and driver; an unpaved road, concealing behind each bend a deep pothole or tiny mountain range of corrugations, may provoke rattles and groans of protest from even the most tolerant of vehicles. For this reason, the owners of cars may be forgiven for thinking that under the metal there lurks something not all that different from a human soul.
 
Mma Ramotswe’s van had served her well, and she loved it. Its life, though, had been a hard one. Not only had it been obliged to cope with dust, which, as anybody who lives in a dry country will know, can choke a vehicle to death, but its long-suffering suspen­sion had been required to deal with persistent overloading, at least on the driver’s side. That, of course, was the side on which Mma Ramotswe sat, and she was, by her own admission and description, a traditionally built person. Such a person can wear down even the toughest suspension, and this is exactly what happened in the case of the tiny white van, which permanently listed to starboard as a result.
 
Mma Ramotswe’s husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, that excel­lent man, proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors and widely regarded as the best mechanic in all Botswana, had done his best to address the problem, but had tired of having to change the van’s shock absorbers from side to side so as to equalise the strain. Yet it went further than that. The engine itself had started to make a sin­ister sound, which grew in volume until eventually the big-end failed.
 
“I am just a mechanic, Mma Ramotswe,” he had said to his wife. “A mechanic is a man who fixes cars and other vehicles. That is what a mechanic does.”
 
Mma Ramotswe had listened politely, but her heart within her was a stone of fear. She knew that the fate of her van was at stake, and she would prefer not to know that. “I think I understand what a mechanic does, Rra,” she said. “And you are a very good mechanic, quite capable of fixing a—”
 
She did not finish. The normally mild Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni had raised a finger. “A mechanic, Mma,” he pronounced, “is different from a miracle-worker. A miracle-worker is a person who . . . works miracles. A mechanic cannot do that. And so when the time comes for a vehicle to die—and they are mortal, Mma, I can assure you— then he cannot wave a wand and make the car new again.” He paused, looking at her with the air of a doctor imparting bad news. “And so . . .”
 
He had done his best for her, of course, and bought her a spanking new van, blue this time, with an array of buttons on the dashboard that she had not yet dared investigate, and with an engine so quiet and unobtrusive that it was sometimes possible to believe that it was not switched on at all and that it was gravity alone, or some other mysterious force, that was propelling the van down the road. She tried to appear grateful, but it was hard. It was true that the point of a vehicle was to get you from one place to another without incident, but that, she thought, was not the only consideration. If efficiency were the only value in this life, then we would be content to eat bland but nutritious food every day—and the same food at that. That would keep us alive, but it would make for very dull mealtimes. And the same was true of transport: there was all the world of difference between travelling along a highway in an air-conditioned bus, behind tinted glass, and making the same journey by a side-road, on a cart pulled by a team of mules, with the morning air fresh against your face and the branches of the acacia trees brushing past so close that you could reach out to touch the delicate green leaves. There was all that difference.
 
The tiny white van had gone to a scrap dealer, and that, she thought, was the end. But then she encountered a woman who told her that a nephew of hers had acquired the van, and towed it up to his place near the Tuli Block. He loved tinkering, she said, and he might be able to do something with the parts that he could strip from the body of the van. That was all Mma Ramotswe heard, and nothing more. It was a better fate, perhaps, than that of total destruction in the jaws of some metal-crushing predator, but still she hoped that the young man who had bought the van for scrap might exercise his mechanical skills and restore it. And that possi­bility she kept in her mind, tucked away among the other scraps of hope of the sort that we go through life with, not thinking about them very much but unwilling to let them fade away altogether.
 
Now, on this crisp Botswana day, at the tail end of a winter that, for all its cold mornings, was still drenched in clear and constant sun, Mma Ramotswe was reminded of her former van by some­thing she saw on the road. She was driving past the Ministry of Water Affairs, her mind on a case that she had been working on for some time and was no nearer resolution than when she had started. She wondered whether she should not begin afresh, abandoning all the information she had obtained, and speaking to everybody again from scratch; possibly, she thought, it might be easier if . . . And then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw what seemed to be her tiny white van. It was not just that she saw a white van—they were common enough in a country where the most popular colour for a vehicle was white—it was the fact that the white vehicle she saw had the air of her van, a characteristic gait, so to speak, a way of moving.
 
Her first instinct was to stop, and this she did, pulling in to the side of the road, her wheels throwing up a cloud of dust and causing the vehicle behind her to swerve angrily. She waved an apology—that was not the sort of driving she condoned in others— before twisting round in her seat to look at the turning down which she had glimpsed the van making its way. She saw nothing, so she decided to reverse a few yards to get a better view. But no, the side-road was empty.
 
She frowned. Had she imagined it? She had read somewhere that those who mourn will sometimes see those they mourn—or will think they see them. But she was not really mourning her van, even if she regretted its passing; she was not the sort of woman who would allow something like that to get in the way of living. She shook her head, as if to clear it, and then, on impulse, made a sweeping U-turn, heading off on to the side-road down which she had seen the white van disappear.
 
A woman was sitting on a stone on the edge of the road, a small bundle of possessions on the ground beside her. Mma Ramotswe slowed down, and the woman looked at her enquiringly.
 
“I’m sorry, Mma,” said Mma Ramotswe through her open win­dow. “I haven’t stopped to give you a ride to wherever it is you want to go.”
 
“Ah,” said the woman. “I hoped you had, Mma, but I don’t mind. My son promised to come and collect me, and he will get round to it eventually.”
 
“Sometimes men forget these things,” said Mma Ramotswe. “They tell us that they are too busy to do the things we want them to do, but they have plenty of time for their own concerns.”
 
The woman laughed. “Oh, that is right, my sister! I can hear them saying that in those voices that men have!”
 
Mma Ramotswe joined in the laughter. Then she asked, “Did a white van come down this way, Mma? Not a big one—a small one, same size as this one I’m in but much older—and white.”
 
The woman frowned. “When, Mma? I have only been sitting here for half an hour.”
 
“Oh, not that long ago,” said Mma Ramotswe. “About two or three minutes ago. Maybe four.”
 
The woman shook her head. “No, Mma. Nobody has been down here for at least ten minutes, maybe more. And there have been no white vans—I would have seen one if there had been. I have been watching, you see.”
 
“Are you sure, Mma?”
 
The woman nodded vigorously. “I am very sure, Mma. I see everything. I was in the police, you see. For three years, a long time ago, I was one of those police ladies. Then I fell off a truck and they said that I could not walk well enough to stay in. They are very fool­ish sometimes, and that is why the criminals sit there in those bars and tell one another stories of what the police have not done. They laugh at them and drink their beer. That is what is happening today, and God will certainly punish the politicians one day for letting this happen.”
 
Mma Ramotswe smiled. “You are right, Mma. Those criminals need to be taught a lesson. But to go back to the van, are you absolutely sure, Mma?”
 
“I am one hundred per cent sure,” said the woman. “If you made me stand up in the High Court in Lobatse and asked me whether I had seen a van, I would say certainly not and that is the truth.”
 
Mma Ramotswe thanked her. “I hope that your son comes soon, Mma,” she said.
 
“He will. When he has finished dancing with ladies or whatever he is doing, he will come.”
 
Mma Ramotswe continued with her journey, completing the tasks she had been on her way to perform. She thought no more of the sighting of the van until she returned to the office a couple of hours later and mentioned the matter to Mma Makutsi.
 
“I saw something very strange today, Mma,” she began as she settled herself at her desk.
 
“That is no surprise,” said Mma Makutsi from the other side of the room. “There are some very strange things happening in Gaborone these days.”
 
Mma Ramotswe would normally have agreed with this—there were very odd things happening—but she did not want Mma Makutsi to get launched on the subject of politics or the behaviour of teenagers, or any of the other subjects on which she harboured strong and sometimes unconventional views. So she went on to describe the sighting of the van and the curiously unsettling con­versation she had had with the woman by the side of the road. “She was very sure that there had been no van, Mma, and I believed her. And yet I am just as sure that I saw it. I was not dreaming.”
 
Mma Makutsi listened attentively. “So,” she said. “You saw it, but she did not. What does that mean, Mma?”
 
Mma Ramotswe considered this for a moment. There was something on the issue in Clovis Andersen’s book, she seemed to remember; The Principles of Private Detection had a great deal to recommend it in all departments, but it was particularly strong on the subject of evidence and the recollection of what people see. When two or more people see something, the great authority had written, you would be astonished at how many different versions of events you will get! This is not because people are lying; it is more because we see things differently. One person sees one thing, and another sees something altogether different. Both believe that they are telling the truth.
 
Mma Makutsi did not wait for Mma Ramotswe to answer her question. “It means that one of you saw something that the other did not.”
 
Mma Ramotswe pondered this answer. It did not advance the matter very much, she thought. “So the fact that one of you saw nothing,” Mma Makutsi con­tinued, “does not mean that there was nothing. She saw nothing because she did not notice anything. You saw something that she did not notice because it was not there, or it was not there in the way that you thought it was there.”
 
“I’m not sure I follow you, Mma Makutsi . . .”
 
Mma Makutsi drew herself up behind her desk. “That van, Mma Ramotswe, was a ghost van. It was the spirit of a late van. That’s what you must have seen.”
 
Mma Ramotswe was not certain whether her assistant was being serious. Mma Makutsi could make peculiar remarks, but she had never before said anything quite as ridiculous as this. That was what made her feel that perhaps she was joking and that the proper reaction for her was to laugh. But if she laughed and her assistant was in fact being serious, then offence would be taken and this could be followed by a period of huffiness. So she confined her reaction to an innocent question: “Do vans have ghosts, Mma? Do you think that likely?”
 
“I don’t see why not,” said Mma Makutsi. “If people have ghosts, then why shouldn’t other things have them? What makes us so special that only we can have ghosts? What makes us think that, Mma?”
 
“Well, I’m not so sure that there are ghosts of people anyway,” said Mma Ramotswe. “If we go to heaven when we die, then who are these ghosts that people talk about? No, it doesn’t seem likely to me.”
 
Mma Makutsi frowned. “Ah, but who says that everybody goes to heaven?” she asked. “There are people who will not get any­where near heaven. I can think of many . . .”
 
Mma Ramotswe’s curiosity was too much for her. “Such as, Mma?”
 
Mma Makutsi showed no hesitation in replying. “Violet Sepho­tho,” she said quickly. “There will be no place for her in heaven— that is well known. So she will have to stay down here in Gaborone, walking around and not being seen by anybody because she will be a ghost.” She paused, an expression of delight crossing her face. “And, Mma, she will be a ghost in high-heeled shoes! Can you imagine that, Mma? A ghost tottering around on those silly high heels that she wears. It is a very funny thought, Mma. Even those who saw such a ghost would not be frightened but would burst out laughing. Other ghosts would laugh, Mma—they would, although we wouldn’t hear them, of course.”
 
“Unless we were ghosts ourselves by that stage,” interjected Mma Ramotswe. “Then we would hear them.”
 
This warning made Mma Makutsi fall silent. It had been an appetising picture that she had been painting, and she slightly resented Mma Ramotswe’s spoiling it like this. But her resentment did not persist, as it occurred to her that Mma Ramotswe, having possibly just seen a ghost herself—even if only a ghost van—might be in need of a restorative cup of red bush tea.
 
“I think it is time that I put the kettle on,” she said. “All this talk of ghosts . . .”
 
Mma Ramotswe laughed. “There are no ghosts, Mma. No ghost people, no ghost vans. These things are just stories we make up to frighten ourselves.”
 
Mma Makutsi, now standing beside the kettle, looked out of the window. Yes, she thought, one can say that sort of thing in broad daylight, under this wide and sunlit Botswana sky, but would one say the same thing with equal conviction at night, when one was out in the bush, perhaps, away from the streetlights of town, and surrounded by the sounds of the night—sounds that could not be easily explained away and could be anything, things known or unknown, things friendly or unfriendly, things that it was better not to think about? She shuddered. It was not a good idea to let one’s mind dwell on these matters, and she was sure it was best to think about something quite different. And so she said to Mma Ramo­tswe, “Mma, I am worried about Charlie. I am very worried.”
 
Mma Ramotswe looked up from her desk. “Charlie, Mma Makutsi? But we have always been worried about Charlie, right from the beginning.” She smiled at her assistant. “I’m sure that even when he was a very small boy, this high, his mother was shak­ing her head and saying that she was worried about Charlie. And all those girls, I’m sure that they have been saying the same thing for years. It is what people say about him.”
 
Mma Makutsi smiled too, but only weakly. “Yes, Mma,” she said. “But this time it’s different. I think now that we have to do something about him.”
 
Mma Ramotswe sighed. Whatever it was, Mma Makutsi was probably right. But she was not sure that it was the responsibility of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency to deal with Charlie’s problems—whatever they were. Charlie was an apprentice of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, and it would have to be Mr.
 
J.L.B. Matekoni who took action.
 
She looked across the room at her assistant, who was frowning with concentration as she poured the boiling water into the teapot. “Very well, Mma Makutsi,” she said. “Tell me what the trouble is. What has our young friend been up to now?”

Copyright © 2011 by Alexander Mccall Smith. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
© Michael Lionstar

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels and a number of other series and stand-alone books. His works have been translated into more than forty languages and have been best sellers throughout the world. He lives in Scotland.

View titles by Alexander McCall Smith

About

In this latest installment in the charming, bestselling series, Precious Ramotswe faces two confounding cases: the mysterious fate of some cows, and the ghost-like reappearance of her dear old white van.

As Mma Ramotswe investigates the deaths of cows at a cattle post outside Gaborone, she finds herself also pursuing other mysteries closer to home. One of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s apprentices appears to have gotten a girl pregnant, and has run away to avoid marrying her. Meanwhile, Precious sees her beloved old van—sent to the junkyard long ago—trundling around the city again. Has the van been miraculously revived, or is she hallucinating? Further complicating matters are Violet Sephotho’s newly launched campaign for a seat in Botswana’s parliament, and Grace Makutsi’s growing fears that she’ll never be able to marry her fiancé Phuti Radiphuti if she can’t find the perfect pair of wedding shoes. As ever, Precious will draw on her trademark grace and wisdom as she helps unravel all these tangled threads.

“This is Mr. McCall Smith at his benevolent best.”—The Washington Times

“A visit with a cast of characters who seem like old and cherished friends.” —St. Petersburg Times

“Charming and hilarious. . . . McCall Smith’s world is . . . a sweet and timeless bubble with its own morality, language, and customs. Entering it can be a source of great comfort.” —The Seattle Times

“Mma Ramotswe’s fictional adventures and the lives of her fellow characters weave together like the intricate patterns of baskets. . . . Readers will come home from The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party well fed, well danced, and well hoping that Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi will be back.” —Sacramento Book Review

“[McCall Smith] again makes the sublime look easy. . . . [He] has few peers in capturing the quiet moments of people’s lives, and his empathetic lead has one of the biggest hearts in modern literature.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Endearing, amusing . . . sparkles with African sunshine and wit.” —The Dallas Morning News

“Irresistible.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Utterly charming and compulsively readable.” —Newsweek

“The pleasure of these sweet books lies in the clarity and gravity with which the characters reason through everyday dilemmas.” —Entertainment Weekly

“A potent mix of charm and whimsy.” —The Christian Science Monitor

“There is no murder, no international complications, no thrill a minute. Instead, the pace is slow, the geography appreciated in a quiet way, the small details celebrated—that is the pleasure of this series. All we need is a cup of red bush tea to complete the picture.” —San Jose Mercury News

“Satisfying—and surprising. . . . Will please fans and win converts.”—The Free Lance-Star

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE
 
THE MEMORY OF LOST THINGS
 
Mma Ramotswe had by no means forgotten her late white van. It was true that she did not brood upon it, as some people dwell on things of the past, but it still came to mind from time to time, often at unexpected moments. Memories of that which we have lost are curious things—weeks, months, even years may pass without any recollection of them and then, quite suddenly, some­thing will remind us of a lost friend, or of a favourite possession that has been mislaid or destroyed, and then we will think: Yes, that is what I had and I have no longer.
 
Her van had been her companion and friend for many years. Can a vehicle—a collection of mechanical bits and pieces, nuts and bolts and parts the names of which one has not the faintest idea of—can such a thing be a friend? Of course it can: physical objects can have personalities, at least in the eyes of their owners. To others, it may only be a van, but to the owner it may be the friend that has started loyally each morning—except sometimes; that has sat patiently during long hours of waiting outside the houses of suspected adulterers; that has carried one home in the late afternoon, tired after a day’s work at the No. 1 Ladies’ Detec­tive Agency. And just like a person, a car or a van may have likes and dislikes. A good tar road is balm to man and machine and may pro­duce a humming sound of satisfaction in both car and driver; an unpaved road, concealing behind each bend a deep pothole or tiny mountain range of corrugations, may provoke rattles and groans of protest from even the most tolerant of vehicles. For this reason, the owners of cars may be forgiven for thinking that under the metal there lurks something not all that different from a human soul.
 
Mma Ramotswe’s van had served her well, and she loved it. Its life, though, had been a hard one. Not only had it been obliged to cope with dust, which, as anybody who lives in a dry country will know, can choke a vehicle to death, but its long-suffering suspen­sion had been required to deal with persistent overloading, at least on the driver’s side. That, of course, was the side on which Mma Ramotswe sat, and she was, by her own admission and description, a traditionally built person. Such a person can wear down even the toughest suspension, and this is exactly what happened in the case of the tiny white van, which permanently listed to starboard as a result.
 
Mma Ramotswe’s husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, that excel­lent man, proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors and widely regarded as the best mechanic in all Botswana, had done his best to address the problem, but had tired of having to change the van’s shock absorbers from side to side so as to equalise the strain. Yet it went further than that. The engine itself had started to make a sin­ister sound, which grew in volume until eventually the big-end failed.
 
“I am just a mechanic, Mma Ramotswe,” he had said to his wife. “A mechanic is a man who fixes cars and other vehicles. That is what a mechanic does.”
 
Mma Ramotswe had listened politely, but her heart within her was a stone of fear. She knew that the fate of her van was at stake, and she would prefer not to know that. “I think I understand what a mechanic does, Rra,” she said. “And you are a very good mechanic, quite capable of fixing a—”
 
She did not finish. The normally mild Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni had raised a finger. “A mechanic, Mma,” he pronounced, “is different from a miracle-worker. A miracle-worker is a person who . . . works miracles. A mechanic cannot do that. And so when the time comes for a vehicle to die—and they are mortal, Mma, I can assure you— then he cannot wave a wand and make the car new again.” He paused, looking at her with the air of a doctor imparting bad news. “And so . . .”
 
He had done his best for her, of course, and bought her a spanking new van, blue this time, with an array of buttons on the dashboard that she had not yet dared investigate, and with an engine so quiet and unobtrusive that it was sometimes possible to believe that it was not switched on at all and that it was gravity alone, or some other mysterious force, that was propelling the van down the road. She tried to appear grateful, but it was hard. It was true that the point of a vehicle was to get you from one place to another without incident, but that, she thought, was not the only consideration. If efficiency were the only value in this life, then we would be content to eat bland but nutritious food every day—and the same food at that. That would keep us alive, but it would make for very dull mealtimes. And the same was true of transport: there was all the world of difference between travelling along a highway in an air-conditioned bus, behind tinted glass, and making the same journey by a side-road, on a cart pulled by a team of mules, with the morning air fresh against your face and the branches of the acacia trees brushing past so close that you could reach out to touch the delicate green leaves. There was all that difference.
 
The tiny white van had gone to a scrap dealer, and that, she thought, was the end. But then she encountered a woman who told her that a nephew of hers had acquired the van, and towed it up to his place near the Tuli Block. He loved tinkering, she said, and he might be able to do something with the parts that he could strip from the body of the van. That was all Mma Ramotswe heard, and nothing more. It was a better fate, perhaps, than that of total destruction in the jaws of some metal-crushing predator, but still she hoped that the young man who had bought the van for scrap might exercise his mechanical skills and restore it. And that possi­bility she kept in her mind, tucked away among the other scraps of hope of the sort that we go through life with, not thinking about them very much but unwilling to let them fade away altogether.
 
Now, on this crisp Botswana day, at the tail end of a winter that, for all its cold mornings, was still drenched in clear and constant sun, Mma Ramotswe was reminded of her former van by some­thing she saw on the road. She was driving past the Ministry of Water Affairs, her mind on a case that she had been working on for some time and was no nearer resolution than when she had started. She wondered whether she should not begin afresh, abandoning all the information she had obtained, and speaking to everybody again from scratch; possibly, she thought, it might be easier if . . . And then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw what seemed to be her tiny white van. It was not just that she saw a white van—they were common enough in a country where the most popular colour for a vehicle was white—it was the fact that the white vehicle she saw had the air of her van, a characteristic gait, so to speak, a way of moving.
 
Her first instinct was to stop, and this she did, pulling in to the side of the road, her wheels throwing up a cloud of dust and causing the vehicle behind her to swerve angrily. She waved an apology—that was not the sort of driving she condoned in others— before twisting round in her seat to look at the turning down which she had glimpsed the van making its way. She saw nothing, so she decided to reverse a few yards to get a better view. But no, the side-road was empty.
 
She frowned. Had she imagined it? She had read somewhere that those who mourn will sometimes see those they mourn—or will think they see them. But she was not really mourning her van, even if she regretted its passing; she was not the sort of woman who would allow something like that to get in the way of living. She shook her head, as if to clear it, and then, on impulse, made a sweeping U-turn, heading off on to the side-road down which she had seen the white van disappear.
 
A woman was sitting on a stone on the edge of the road, a small bundle of possessions on the ground beside her. Mma Ramotswe slowed down, and the woman looked at her enquiringly.
 
“I’m sorry, Mma,” said Mma Ramotswe through her open win­dow. “I haven’t stopped to give you a ride to wherever it is you want to go.”
 
“Ah,” said the woman. “I hoped you had, Mma, but I don’t mind. My son promised to come and collect me, and he will get round to it eventually.”
 
“Sometimes men forget these things,” said Mma Ramotswe. “They tell us that they are too busy to do the things we want them to do, but they have plenty of time for their own concerns.”
 
The woman laughed. “Oh, that is right, my sister! I can hear them saying that in those voices that men have!”
 
Mma Ramotswe joined in the laughter. Then she asked, “Did a white van come down this way, Mma? Not a big one—a small one, same size as this one I’m in but much older—and white.”
 
The woman frowned. “When, Mma? I have only been sitting here for half an hour.”
 
“Oh, not that long ago,” said Mma Ramotswe. “About two or three minutes ago. Maybe four.”
 
The woman shook her head. “No, Mma. Nobody has been down here for at least ten minutes, maybe more. And there have been no white vans—I would have seen one if there had been. I have been watching, you see.”
 
“Are you sure, Mma?”
 
The woman nodded vigorously. “I am very sure, Mma. I see everything. I was in the police, you see. For three years, a long time ago, I was one of those police ladies. Then I fell off a truck and they said that I could not walk well enough to stay in. They are very fool­ish sometimes, and that is why the criminals sit there in those bars and tell one another stories of what the police have not done. They laugh at them and drink their beer. That is what is happening today, and God will certainly punish the politicians one day for letting this happen.”
 
Mma Ramotswe smiled. “You are right, Mma. Those criminals need to be taught a lesson. But to go back to the van, are you absolutely sure, Mma?”
 
“I am one hundred per cent sure,” said the woman. “If you made me stand up in the High Court in Lobatse and asked me whether I had seen a van, I would say certainly not and that is the truth.”
 
Mma Ramotswe thanked her. “I hope that your son comes soon, Mma,” she said.
 
“He will. When he has finished dancing with ladies or whatever he is doing, he will come.”
 
Mma Ramotswe continued with her journey, completing the tasks she had been on her way to perform. She thought no more of the sighting of the van until she returned to the office a couple of hours later and mentioned the matter to Mma Makutsi.
 
“I saw something very strange today, Mma,” she began as she settled herself at her desk.
 
“That is no surprise,” said Mma Makutsi from the other side of the room. “There are some very strange things happening in Gaborone these days.”
 
Mma Ramotswe would normally have agreed with this—there were very odd things happening—but she did not want Mma Makutsi to get launched on the subject of politics or the behaviour of teenagers, or any of the other subjects on which she harboured strong and sometimes unconventional views. So she went on to describe the sighting of the van and the curiously unsettling con­versation she had had with the woman by the side of the road. “She was very sure that there had been no van, Mma, and I believed her. And yet I am just as sure that I saw it. I was not dreaming.”
 
Mma Makutsi listened attentively. “So,” she said. “You saw it, but she did not. What does that mean, Mma?”
 
Mma Ramotswe considered this for a moment. There was something on the issue in Clovis Andersen’s book, she seemed to remember; The Principles of Private Detection had a great deal to recommend it in all departments, but it was particularly strong on the subject of evidence and the recollection of what people see. When two or more people see something, the great authority had written, you would be astonished at how many different versions of events you will get! This is not because people are lying; it is more because we see things differently. One person sees one thing, and another sees something altogether different. Both believe that they are telling the truth.
 
Mma Makutsi did not wait for Mma Ramotswe to answer her question. “It means that one of you saw something that the other did not.”
 
Mma Ramotswe pondered this answer. It did not advance the matter very much, she thought. “So the fact that one of you saw nothing,” Mma Makutsi con­tinued, “does not mean that there was nothing. She saw nothing because she did not notice anything. You saw something that she did not notice because it was not there, or it was not there in the way that you thought it was there.”
 
“I’m not sure I follow you, Mma Makutsi . . .”
 
Mma Makutsi drew herself up behind her desk. “That van, Mma Ramotswe, was a ghost van. It was the spirit of a late van. That’s what you must have seen.”
 
Mma Ramotswe was not certain whether her assistant was being serious. Mma Makutsi could make peculiar remarks, but she had never before said anything quite as ridiculous as this. That was what made her feel that perhaps she was joking and that the proper reaction for her was to laugh. But if she laughed and her assistant was in fact being serious, then offence would be taken and this could be followed by a period of huffiness. So she confined her reaction to an innocent question: “Do vans have ghosts, Mma? Do you think that likely?”
 
“I don’t see why not,” said Mma Makutsi. “If people have ghosts, then why shouldn’t other things have them? What makes us so special that only we can have ghosts? What makes us think that, Mma?”
 
“Well, I’m not so sure that there are ghosts of people anyway,” said Mma Ramotswe. “If we go to heaven when we die, then who are these ghosts that people talk about? No, it doesn’t seem likely to me.”
 
Mma Makutsi frowned. “Ah, but who says that everybody goes to heaven?” she asked. “There are people who will not get any­where near heaven. I can think of many . . .”
 
Mma Ramotswe’s curiosity was too much for her. “Such as, Mma?”
 
Mma Makutsi showed no hesitation in replying. “Violet Sepho­tho,” she said quickly. “There will be no place for her in heaven— that is well known. So she will have to stay down here in Gaborone, walking around and not being seen by anybody because she will be a ghost.” She paused, an expression of delight crossing her face. “And, Mma, she will be a ghost in high-heeled shoes! Can you imagine that, Mma? A ghost tottering around on those silly high heels that she wears. It is a very funny thought, Mma. Even those who saw such a ghost would not be frightened but would burst out laughing. Other ghosts would laugh, Mma—they would, although we wouldn’t hear them, of course.”
 
“Unless we were ghosts ourselves by that stage,” interjected Mma Ramotswe. “Then we would hear them.”
 
This warning made Mma Makutsi fall silent. It had been an appetising picture that she had been painting, and she slightly resented Mma Ramotswe’s spoiling it like this. But her resentment did not persist, as it occurred to her that Mma Ramotswe, having possibly just seen a ghost herself—even if only a ghost van—might be in need of a restorative cup of red bush tea.
 
“I think it is time that I put the kettle on,” she said. “All this talk of ghosts . . .”
 
Mma Ramotswe laughed. “There are no ghosts, Mma. No ghost people, no ghost vans. These things are just stories we make up to frighten ourselves.”
 
Mma Makutsi, now standing beside the kettle, looked out of the window. Yes, she thought, one can say that sort of thing in broad daylight, under this wide and sunlit Botswana sky, but would one say the same thing with equal conviction at night, when one was out in the bush, perhaps, away from the streetlights of town, and surrounded by the sounds of the night—sounds that could not be easily explained away and could be anything, things known or unknown, things friendly or unfriendly, things that it was better not to think about? She shuddered. It was not a good idea to let one’s mind dwell on these matters, and she was sure it was best to think about something quite different. And so she said to Mma Ramo­tswe, “Mma, I am worried about Charlie. I am very worried.”
 
Mma Ramotswe looked up from her desk. “Charlie, Mma Makutsi? But we have always been worried about Charlie, right from the beginning.” She smiled at her assistant. “I’m sure that even when he was a very small boy, this high, his mother was shak­ing her head and saying that she was worried about Charlie. And all those girls, I’m sure that they have been saying the same thing for years. It is what people say about him.”
 
Mma Makutsi smiled too, but only weakly. “Yes, Mma,” she said. “But this time it’s different. I think now that we have to do something about him.”
 
Mma Ramotswe sighed. Whatever it was, Mma Makutsi was probably right. But she was not sure that it was the responsibility of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency to deal with Charlie’s problems—whatever they were. Charlie was an apprentice of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, and it would have to be Mr.
 
J.L.B. Matekoni who took action.
 
She looked across the room at her assistant, who was frowning with concentration as she poured the boiling water into the teapot. “Very well, Mma Makutsi,” she said. “Tell me what the trouble is. What has our young friend been up to now?”

Copyright © 2011 by Alexander Mccall Smith. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author

© Michael Lionstar

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels and a number of other series and stand-alone books. His works have been translated into more than forty languages and have been best sellers throughout the world. He lives in Scotland.

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  • The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party
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    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-56642-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jun 02, 2020
  • The Department of Sensitive Crimes
    The Department of Sensitive Crimes
    A Detective Varg Novel (1)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-56567-3
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 04, 2020
  • The Peppermint Tea Chronicles
    The Peppermint Tea Chronicles
    44 Scotland Street Series (13)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-9848-9781-7
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 03, 2019
  • The Quiet Side of Passion
    The Quiet Side of Passion
    An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (12)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-8041-6993-6
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jun 04, 2019
  • The Race to Kangaroo Cliff
    The Race to Kangaroo Cliff
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-399-55405-6
    $15.99 US
    Hardcover
    Delacorte Press
    Apr 09, 2019
  • The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists
    The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-9848-9852-4
    $2.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Feb 26, 2019
  • The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse
    The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse
    A Novel
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-56303-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 05, 2019
  • A Distant View of Everything
    A Distant View of Everything
    An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (11)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-8041-6992-9
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 21, 2018
  • Freddie Mole: Lion Tamer
    Freddie Mole: Lion Tamer
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-5247-1379-9
    $10.99 US
    Ebook
    Delacorte Press
    Jul 10, 2018
  • My Italian Bulldozer
    My Italian Bulldozer
    A Paul Stuart Novel (1)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-101-97283-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Mar 06, 2018
  • A Time of Love and Tartan
    A Time of Love and Tartan
    44 Scotland Street Series (12)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-43655-3
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 06, 2018
  • Chance Developments
    Chance Developments
    Stories
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-101-97187-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Nov 28, 2017
  • The Sands of Shark Island
    The Sands of Shark Island
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-399-55403-2
    $7.99 US
    Ebook
    Delacorte Press
    Jul 11, 2017
  • The Bertie Project
    The Bertie Project
    44 Scotland Street Series (11)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-43300-2
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 07, 2017
  • School Ship Tobermory
    School Ship Tobermory
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-399-55261-8
    $15.99 US
    Hardcover
    Delacorte Press
    Oct 11, 2016
  • The Novel Habits of Happiness
    The Novel Habits of Happiness
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-94924-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 23, 2016
  • Sweet, Thoughtful Valentine
    Sweet, Thoughtful Valentine
    An Isabel Dalhousie Story
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-43191-6
    $0.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    May 31, 2016
  • Emma: A Modern Retelling
    Emma: A Modern Retelling
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-8041-7241-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Apr 05, 2016
  • The Revolving Door of Life
    The Revolving Door of Life
    44 Scotland Street Series (10)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-101-97191-8
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 09, 2016
  • At the Reunion Buffet
    At the Reunion Buffet
    An Isabel Dalhousie Story
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-101-97046-1
    $1.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    May 26, 2015
  • Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers
    Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers
    44 Scotland Street Series (9)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-8041-7000-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 17, 2015
  • The Forever Girl
    The Forever Girl
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-345-80442-6
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 30, 2014
  • The Mystery of the Missing Lion
    The Mystery of the Missing Lion
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-8041-7327-8
    $7.99 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Oct 21, 2014
  • Sunshine on Scotland Street
    Sunshine on Scotland Street
    44 Scotland Street Series (8)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-345-80440-2
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 12, 2014
  • Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party
    Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-101-87301-4
    $3.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Aug 05, 2014
  • Trains and Lovers
    Trains and Lovers
    A Novel
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-345-80581-2
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 31, 2013
  • Mystery of Meerkat Hill
    Mystery of Meerkat Hill
    Alexander McCall Smith, Iain McIntosh
    978-0-345-80446-4
    $7.99 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Oct 22, 2013
  • Bertie Plays the Blues
    Bertie Plays the Blues
    44 Scotland Street Series (7)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-94849-6
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Oct 08, 2013
  • The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds
    The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-94923-3
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jul 02, 2013
  • A Conspiracy of Friends
    A Conspiracy of Friends
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-94800-7
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Apr 30, 2013
  • Unusual Uses for Olive Oil
    Unusual Uses for Olive Oil
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-27989-7
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jan 01, 2013
  • The Forgotten Affairs of Youth
    The Forgotten Affairs of Youth
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-73940-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Oct 02, 2012
  • The Importance of Being Seven
    The Importance of Being Seven
    44 Scotland Street Series (6)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-73936-0
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 21, 2012
  • The Dog Who Came in from the Cold
    The Dog Who Came in from the Cold
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-73944-5
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    May 29, 2012
  • The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case
    The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-74389-3
    $6.99 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Apr 03, 2012
  • The Charming Quirks of Others
    The Charming Quirks of Others
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-73939-1
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Nov 01, 2011
  • The Perils of Morning Coffee
    The Perils of Morning Coffee
    An Isabel Dalhousie eBook Original Story
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-90751-6
    $1.99 US
    Ebook
    Pantheon
    Oct 25, 2011
  • Corduroy Mansions
    Corduroy Mansions
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-47650-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    May 31, 2011
  • La's Orchestra Saves the World
    La's Orchestra Saves the World
    A Novel
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-47304-2
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 07, 2010
  • The Lost Art of Gratitude
    The Lost Art of Gratitude
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-38708-0
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Sep 21, 2010
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Scones
    The Unbearable Lightness of Scones
    44 Scotland Street Series (5)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-45470-6
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jan 12, 2010
  • The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday
    The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-38707-3
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jul 28, 2009
  • The World According to Bertie
    The World According to Bertie
    44 Scotland Street Series (4)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-38706-6
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Nov 11, 2008
  • The Careful Use of Compliments
    The Careful Use of Compliments
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7712-0
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 26, 2008
  • Love Over Scotland
    Love Over Scotland
    44 Scotland Street Series (3)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-27598-1
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Nov 06, 2007
  • The Right Attitude to Rain
    The Right Attitude to Rain
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7711-3
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jul 10, 2007
  • Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
    Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7710-6
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 29, 2006
  • Espresso Tales
    Espresso Tales
    44 Scotland Street Series (2)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-27597-4
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jul 11, 2006
  • The Sunday Philosophy Club
    The Sunday Philosophy Club
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7709-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jul 12, 2005
  • 44 Scotland Street
    44 Scotland Street
    44 Scotland Street Series (1)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7944-5
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jun 14, 2005
  • Portuguese Irregular Verbs
    Portuguese Irregular Verbs
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7708-3
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 28, 2004
  • The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
    The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-9508-7
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 28, 2004
  • At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances
    At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-9509-4
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 28, 2004
  • The Girl Who Married a Lion
    The Girl Who Married a Lion
    and Other Tales from Africa
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-375-42344-4
    $12.99 US
    Ebook
    Pantheon
    Dec 07, 2004
  • No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (24)
    No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (24)
    No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (24)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-31699-3
    $28.00 US
    Hardcover
    Pantheon
    Oct 17, 2023
  • The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf
    The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf
    A Detective Varg Novel (4)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-70083-9
    $28.00 US
    Hardcover
    Pantheon
    Jul 25, 2023
  • The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even
    The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even
    Stories
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-70069-3
    $29.00 US
    Hardcover
    Pantheon
    May 09, 2023
  • The Enigma of Garlic
    The Enigma of Garlic
    44 Scotland Street Series (16)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-68519-8
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Apr 11, 2023
  • Cook for Me
    Cook for Me
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-68605-8
    $1.99 US
    Ebook
    Anchor
    Feb 14, 2023
  • Sphinx
    Sphinx
    from Pianos and Flowers
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-68547-1
    $0.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Oct 11, 2022
  • The Sweet Remnants of Summer
    The Sweet Remnants of Summer
    An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (14)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-60809-8
    $29.00 US
    Large Print
    Random House Large Print
    Jul 19, 2022
  • The Man with the Silver Saab
    The Man with the Silver Saab
    A Detective Varg Novel (3)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-31363-3
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jun 07, 2022
  • In a Time of Distance
    In a Time of Distance
    and Other Poems
    Alexander McCall Smith, Iain McIntosh
    978-0-593-31598-9
    $22.00 US
    Hardcover
    Pantheon
    Apr 12, 2022
  • Tiny Tales
    Tiny Tales
    Stories of Romance, Ambition, Kindness, and Happiness
    Alexander McCall Smith, Iain McIntosh
    978-0-593-31297-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Mar 01, 2022
  • Love in the Time of Bertie
    Love in the Time of Bertie
    44 Scotland Street Series (15)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-46844-9
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 22, 2022
  • The Pavilion in the Clouds
    The Pavilion in the Clouds
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-46909-5
    $8.99 US
    Ebook
    Anchor
    Jan 25, 2022
  • Pianos and Flowers
    Pianos and Flowers
    Brief Encounters of the Romantic Kind
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-31096-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 07, 2021
  • The Geometry of Holding Hands
    The Geometry of Holding Hands
    An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (13)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-08123-5
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jun 15, 2021
  • Your Inner Hedgehog
    Your Inner Hedgehog
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-31267-4
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Apr 06, 2021
  • The Talented Mr. Varg
    The Talented Mr. Varg
    A Detective Varg Novel (2)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-08122-8
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Mar 02, 2021
  • A Promise of Ankles
    A Promise of Ankles
    44 Scotland Street (14)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-593-31328-2
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 08, 2020
  • The Second-Worst Restaurant in France
    The Second-Worst Restaurant in France
    A Paul Stuart Novel (2)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-56642-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jun 02, 2020
  • The Department of Sensitive Crimes
    The Department of Sensitive Crimes
    A Detective Varg Novel (1)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-56567-3
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 04, 2020
  • The Peppermint Tea Chronicles
    The Peppermint Tea Chronicles
    44 Scotland Street Series (13)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-9848-9781-7
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 03, 2019
  • The Quiet Side of Passion
    The Quiet Side of Passion
    An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (12)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-8041-6993-6
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jun 04, 2019
  • The Race to Kangaroo Cliff
    The Race to Kangaroo Cliff
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-399-55405-6
    $15.99 US
    Hardcover
    Delacorte Press
    Apr 09, 2019
  • The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists
    The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-9848-9852-4
    $2.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Feb 26, 2019
  • The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse
    The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse
    A Novel
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-56303-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 05, 2019
  • A Distant View of Everything
    A Distant View of Everything
    An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (11)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-8041-6992-9
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 21, 2018
  • Freddie Mole: Lion Tamer
    Freddie Mole: Lion Tamer
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-5247-1379-9
    $10.99 US
    Ebook
    Delacorte Press
    Jul 10, 2018
  • My Italian Bulldozer
    My Italian Bulldozer
    A Paul Stuart Novel (1)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-101-97283-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Mar 06, 2018
  • A Time of Love and Tartan
    A Time of Love and Tartan
    44 Scotland Street Series (12)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-43655-3
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 06, 2018
  • Chance Developments
    Chance Developments
    Stories
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-101-97187-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Nov 28, 2017
  • The Sands of Shark Island
    The Sands of Shark Island
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-399-55403-2
    $7.99 US
    Ebook
    Delacorte Press
    Jul 11, 2017
  • The Bertie Project
    The Bertie Project
    44 Scotland Street Series (11)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-43300-2
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 07, 2017
  • School Ship Tobermory
    School Ship Tobermory
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-399-55261-8
    $15.99 US
    Hardcover
    Delacorte Press
    Oct 11, 2016
  • The Novel Habits of Happiness
    The Novel Habits of Happiness
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-94924-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 23, 2016
  • Sweet, Thoughtful Valentine
    Sweet, Thoughtful Valentine
    An Isabel Dalhousie Story
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-525-43191-6
    $0.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    May 31, 2016
  • Emma: A Modern Retelling
    Emma: A Modern Retelling
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-8041-7241-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Apr 05, 2016
  • The Revolving Door of Life
    The Revolving Door of Life
    44 Scotland Street Series (10)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-101-97191-8
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 09, 2016
  • At the Reunion Buffet
    At the Reunion Buffet
    An Isabel Dalhousie Story
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-101-97046-1
    $1.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    May 26, 2015
  • Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers
    Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers
    44 Scotland Street Series (9)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-8041-7000-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Feb 17, 2015
  • The Forever Girl
    The Forever Girl
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-345-80442-6
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 30, 2014
  • The Mystery of the Missing Lion
    The Mystery of the Missing Lion
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-8041-7327-8
    $7.99 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Oct 21, 2014
  • Sunshine on Scotland Street
    Sunshine on Scotland Street
    44 Scotland Street Series (8)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-345-80440-2
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 12, 2014
  • Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party
    Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-101-87301-4
    $3.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Aug 05, 2014
  • Trains and Lovers
    Trains and Lovers
    A Novel
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-345-80581-2
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 31, 2013
  • Mystery of Meerkat Hill
    Mystery of Meerkat Hill
    Alexander McCall Smith, Iain McIntosh
    978-0-345-80446-4
    $7.99 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Oct 22, 2013
  • Bertie Plays the Blues
    Bertie Plays the Blues
    44 Scotland Street Series (7)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-94849-6
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Oct 08, 2013
  • The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds
    The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-94923-3
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jul 02, 2013
  • A Conspiracy of Friends
    A Conspiracy of Friends
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-94800-7
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Apr 30, 2013
  • Unusual Uses for Olive Oil
    Unusual Uses for Olive Oil
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-27989-7
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jan 01, 2013
  • The Forgotten Affairs of Youth
    The Forgotten Affairs of Youth
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-73940-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Oct 02, 2012
  • The Importance of Being Seven
    The Importance of Being Seven
    44 Scotland Street Series (6)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-73936-0
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 21, 2012
  • The Dog Who Came in from the Cold
    The Dog Who Came in from the Cold
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-73944-5
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    May 29, 2012
  • The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case
    The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-74389-3
    $6.99 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Apr 03, 2012
  • The Charming Quirks of Others
    The Charming Quirks of Others
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-73939-1
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Nov 01, 2011
  • The Perils of Morning Coffee
    The Perils of Morning Coffee
    An Isabel Dalhousie eBook Original Story
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-90751-6
    $1.99 US
    Ebook
    Pantheon
    Oct 25, 2011
  • Corduroy Mansions
    Corduroy Mansions
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-47650-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    May 31, 2011
  • La's Orchestra Saves the World
    La's Orchestra Saves the World
    A Novel
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-47304-2
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 07, 2010
  • The Lost Art of Gratitude
    The Lost Art of Gratitude
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-38708-0
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Sep 21, 2010
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Scones
    The Unbearable Lightness of Scones
    44 Scotland Street Series (5)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-45470-6
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jan 12, 2010
  • The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday
    The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-38707-3
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jul 28, 2009
  • The World According to Bertie
    The World According to Bertie
    44 Scotland Street Series (4)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-38706-6
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Nov 11, 2008
  • The Careful Use of Compliments
    The Careful Use of Compliments
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7712-0
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 26, 2008
  • Love Over Scotland
    Love Over Scotland
    44 Scotland Street Series (3)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-27598-1
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Nov 06, 2007
  • The Right Attitude to Rain
    The Right Attitude to Rain
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7711-3
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jul 10, 2007
  • Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
    Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7710-6
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Aug 29, 2006
  • Espresso Tales
    Espresso Tales
    44 Scotland Street Series (2)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-307-27597-4
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jul 11, 2006
  • The Sunday Philosophy Club
    The Sunday Philosophy Club
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7709-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jul 12, 2005
  • 44 Scotland Street
    44 Scotland Street
    44 Scotland Street Series (1)
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7944-5
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Jun 14, 2005
  • Portuguese Irregular Verbs
    Portuguese Irregular Verbs
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-7708-3
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 28, 2004
  • The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
    The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-9508-7
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 28, 2004
  • At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances
    At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-1-4000-9509-4
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Anchor
    Dec 28, 2004
  • The Girl Who Married a Lion
    The Girl Who Married a Lion
    and Other Tales from Africa
    Alexander McCall Smith
    978-0-375-42344-4
    $12.99 US
    Ebook
    Pantheon
    Dec 07, 2004
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