Tea Time For The Traditionally Built Alexander Mccall Smith Smith by Alexander Mccall Smith [smith, Alexander Mccall] 9780307375193, 0307375196 instant download after payment.

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 Ramotswe’s 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 Makutsi’s fiancé, 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 can’t 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.

Starred Review. Once again, Precious Ramotswe uses her insights into human nature to unravel problems big and small in Smith's charming 10th novel to feature Botswana's No. 1 lady detective (after The Miracle at Speedy Motors). Leungo Molofololo, the owner of the Kalahari Swoopers, a local soccer team with a lot of athletic talent, suspects a traitor on the squad is deliberately sabotaging games for an unknown reason. Despite her complete ignorance of the sport, Mma Ramotswe agrees to look into the matter. She and her prickly assistant, Grace Makutsi, attend a match and begin interviewing the players in an effort to solve what amounts to the book's main mystery. The soccer inquiry, though, is secondary to a major event in Mma Ramotswe's life—the impending demise of the little white van she's used for many years that's much more than a machine to her. Fans can look forward to the debut of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency on HBO on March 29. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Starred Review In stressful times, Botswana detective Precious Ramotswe always finds solace in a steaming pot of red bush tea. But it’s going to take many cups of the richly hued liquid to help her cope with current woes. Topping the list is the state of Mma’s tiny white van, which has developed an ominous rattle she can no longer ignore. Meanwhile, at the detective agency, Mma Ramotswe and her very opinionated assistant, Grace Makutsi, are enlisted by football coach Leungo Molofololo to determine why his once-successful team has lost so many games. (Could there be a traitor among the ranks?) The case will certainly be a challenge. Mma Ramotswe knows nothing about football, and Mma Makutsi is distracted. Her fiancé, Phuti Radiphuti, has hired Violet Sephotho, Grace’s one-time nemesis at the Botswana Secretarial College, to work at his furniture store. (Grace fears that glamorous, manipulative Violet is out to steal her man.) Grace trusts Phuti, but she knows men are weak. “They cannot help it,” she muses, “they are dazzled, just as a mouse is hypnotized by the swaying of a cobra. And then the cobra strikes and it is all over for the mouse, just as it is for the man.” Scotsman McCall Smith’s rich regard for Botswana resonates in this warm, witty, and wise tenth installment in the internationally best-selling series. What fan can resist? --Allison Block