In the second book of the series, Precious Ramotswe is drawn into her biggest case to date when she is visited by an American woman named Mrs. Curtain, who is looking for her missing son. Michael had grown up in America, but visited Africa upon finishing high school. It has now been 11 years since Mrs. Curtain and the rest of Michael's family have heard from him.

She has no doubts that he is dead. He disappeared in the Kalahari desert while working on a commune and was never heard from again. Mrs. Curtain just needs to know what happened so she can put his spirit to rest. She came across the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency through a recommendation from the American embassy.

Mma Remotswe agrees that Michael is probably dead, but having lost her own child many years ago, she feels compelled to help a fellow mother. She jumps in with both feet and finds the truth, but it comes with a few surprises.

Mma Remotswe's personal life is also full of excitement, as well. Her good friend, Mr. JLB Matekoni has proposed, and she has excepted that proposal. Unfortunately not everyone is thrilled by the approaching change of domestic arrangements. Mr. JLB Matekoni's maid, who is quite lazy, is afraid that she won't be able to sit back and relax or host men anymore now that he will have a wife. She comes up with a plot to get Mma Remotswe out of the way. Unfortunately, things don't quite go as planned.

Mr. JLB Matekoni is also confronted with doubts about the future. He is worried that he will not live up to expectations since he is just the owner of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors and a mechanic. Can he really truly make her happy? It is these doubts that convinces him to look into becoming a foster parent. Since he is such a nice and good man, he would be the perfect father, and he sees so many orphans while visiting the local orphanage to fix a water pump pro bono,. He can't help but fall in love with a small girl in a wheel chair and her little brother. He ends up taking them home, and he can only hope that Mma Remotswe will be happy to have a growing family even before the family is fully formed.

The strength of these books is really in the strong characters. The mysteries usually don't have a strong edge to them, but you do want to find out what really happened. Once again Smith does a great job of pulling the reader right into the setting, Botswana. There is a nice hinting of humor throughout the novel, particularly when it comes to Mma Remotswe's interaction with her secretary cum sidekick.

I really hope that the HBO series based on the books will make them even more popular. They are really great reads.