The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (16) by Alexander McCall Smith

She can't believe Mma Makutsi is suggesting she take a holiday.  She's never taken time off.  What would she do?  When her husband agrees it might be a good idea, she asks what she should do.  When they suggest she sleep in and relax, she's scandalized.  She never sleeps in.  And she doesn't know HOW to relax!

Pantheon Books and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It's being published today.

This series is set in Botswana.  It's slow moving, there's much thought given to actions, and it seems they always drinking tea and eating.  When you're sitting in your reading chair enjoying the story, you can feel your blood pressure calming down...

Mma Precious Ramotswe is antsy.  She's not a relax and sit around type lady.  She decides she'll go tea at the fancy local hotel where she can hobnob with the ladies she knows.  She finds out all they talk about is gossip.  She also meets a young man who tries to blackmail her into paying him to keep her van safe.  When she leaves, he's scored her van door with a nail.  She waits until he collects his fee from another driver and then nails him herself.  It turns out his name is Samuel, his mother is a prostitute and he lives in another woman's yard.  She takes his money and sometimes beats him.  Precious isn't going to allow this to continue.  Here it is her first day off and she already has a mission.

The longer she is off, the more she worries.  How's the agency doing?  Why is there another Lady's #1 business going in?  She wants to know but she doesn't want to interfere.  So what does she do?  She does some investigating on her own.

She and Mma Makutsi have a volatile relationship.  Each one says things and then worries about how the other one will take it.  Sometimes the dance of their conversation makes things worse.  But they always straighten it out.  They do this time, too.