by Alexander McCall Smith (#13 in the series), 2012
Another sweet book where Precious Ramotswe meets her hero, Clovis Andersen, who wrote the Principals of Private Detection. He is visiting Botswana after the death of his beloved wife. He’s from Muncie, Indiana. A lady in Botswana doing charitable work is in love with him. He confides to Mma. Ramotswe that his book was not popular and only sold about 80 copies. He and Mma. Ramotswe save Mma. Potokwane (the matron of the orphanage) from being dismissed by uncovering the corruption of Mr. Ditso Ditso, one of the orphanage’s Board members, who contracted with a company to build a large cafeteria for the children to eat in rather than in their individual homes with their house-mothers. Mma Potokwane had protested that idea because the children live and eat with their house mothers and it provides them with a stable, loving small family.
Grace and Phuti are building a home and the builder they contracted is charging double and using the extra money to build a home for himself.
Fanwell gets arrested for working on a stolen car. He is innocent. It looks like he’s going to be convicted because of a bumbling lawyer but Charlie convinces the real criminal, Chobie, to confess on the stand, that Fanwell didn’t know the car was stolen. He did that by telling Chobie that Mma. Ramotswe was a contract killer.