Number One Ladies Unite!

The redoutable Mma "Precious" Ramotswe may claim to be "just a tiny person in Africa," but to her legions of fans, she's a smiling force of nature, solving all the neighborhood's problems--from witchcraft to philandering spouses. Ramotswe returns next week in the eighth installment in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, available Tuesday, April 17.

McCall's Botswana-based novels know they stem from his abiding love for the country. "You feel it when you get off a plane... something about the atmosphere of good in the country," he has said.

If you've already read the other books in the series, there's an excerpt from the next one in Edinburgh's The Scotsman newspaper. You can also download an interview with the author from our friends north across the border at Chapters.