A chance meeting with the manager of The Great Hippopotamus Hotel leads the much-admired and
traditionally-built Precious Ramotswe to investigate what is going wrong with this previously
successful country hotel. Guests have been unwell clothing has disappeared from the washing
line and scorpions have found their way into the guest bedrooms. Mma Ramotswe drives out to
the hotel with her irrepressible colleague Grace Makutsi (97 per cent in the final
examinations of the Botswana Secretarial College). What they find there are family conflicts
that only the investigators of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency will be able to resolve.
Meanwhile at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors Mma Ramotswe's husband Mr J.L.B. Matekoni gets a
visit from a middle-aged client who wants to purchase a fast Italian sports car. What should
the conscientious garagiste do in such circumstances? Should the client's wife be told? Mma
Ramotswe is used to wrestling with such tricky questions but it is harder for Mr J.L.B.
Matekoni. And in the background is that beautiful country Botswana with its wide skies and
its courteous people. In such surroundings big problems soon seem small and small worries
fade away altogether.
