Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

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Tea Time for the Traditionally Built
Tea-time-for-the-traditionally-built.jpg
UK first edition
Author Alexander McCall Smith
CountryScotland
LanguageEnglish
Series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #10
Genre Detective, Mystery novel
Published2009 Little, Brown
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback), Audio (CD)
Preceded by The Miracle at Speedy Motors  
Followed by The Double Comfort Safari Club  

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, published in 2009, is the tenth in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Gaborone, Botswana, and featuring the Motswana protagonist Precious Ramotswe.

Contents

Plot summary

Mma Ramotswe and her assistant Mma Makutsi agree that there are things that men know and ladies do not, and vice versa. The glamorous Violet Sephotho sets her sights on Mma Makutsi's unsuspecting fiancé and it becomes clear that some men do not know how to recognise a ruthless Jezebel even when she is bouncing up and down on the best bed in the Double Comfort Furniture Shop.

In her attempt to foster understanding between the sexes and find the traitor on Mr Football's team, Mma Ramotswe ventures into new territory, with the help of an observant small boy.

Cases

Mma Ramotswe's newest client is the big-shot owner of the ailing football club, the Kalahari Swoopers, but the lady detectives know very little about football.

Subplots

Mma Ramotswe's old white van is dying. She is not ready to give up on it. JLB gets her a new, but boring, van and as grateful as she is, she sets out to find her old van. But to make this complicated her van was stolen from the buyer, making it harder to find.

Themes

This novel is concerned with themes of loyalty, relations between the sexes and often the need to dig deep to uncover the goodness of the human heart.


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