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 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 fiance, 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. . . .