National Network for Equitable Library Service

Mma "Precious" Ramotswe's comfortable existence as the only detective in Botswana is rattled when a certain Mr. Buthelezi opens the Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency. Mr. Buthelezi's brochure advises, "Don't take any chances! Entrust your enquiries to a MAN!" As if this development isn't enough, Precious has also taken on two difficult cases, one of which hits close to home. But with wisdom and common sense on her side -- and plenty of bush tea -- she figures to crack both cases and upstage her competition.

Between glances in the mirror, vain Bruce contemplates a new career as a wine merchant. His troubled flatmate Pat finds herself looking for true love at a nudist picnic. Precocious Bertie, now six years old, prepares for kindergarten despite the horror of being forced to wear pink overalls. Meanwhile, his domineering mother Irene and his psychotherapist Dr. Fairbairn struggle with dark secrets as Bertie plots his rebellion against them.

In the 1870s, young Mattie Ross learns that her beloved father was gunned down by his former handyman. But even though this gutsy 14-year-old is seeking vengeance, she is smart enough to figure out she can't go alone after a desperado who's holed up in Indian territory. With some fast-talking, she convinces mean, one-eyed US Marshal "Rooster" Cogburn into going after the despicable outlaw with her.

When a deranged Florida congressman falls for a gorgeous but virtuous stripper, he dedicates himself to pursuing this tasselled princess who is also a damsel in distress.

The aftermath of Hurricane Andrew draws individuals who prey on the storm's victims. They find easy targets for their insurance scams, but are unprepared for their opposition led by a tough ex-governor.

In big stakes bass fishing tournaments, contestants will do anything to win. Maybe tht's why there is a corpse floating in Coon Bog. Now it's up to R.J. Decker, novice private investigator, to find out who was dying to get the biggest fish. Help comes in the unlikely form of Skink, a half-mad hermit with a taste for road kill.

A reporter-turned-private eye moves from muckraking to uncovering murder in a caper that mixes football players, politicians, and a very hungry crocodile.

It is the mid-seventies, and Shaila has returned to Bombay for her father's sixtieth birthday party. In the linked stories that follow, Shree Gatage renders an India that can only be revealed by first leaving, and then returning again -- in the end, for Shaila, for good.

From the author of the award-winning The Sisters Brothers comes a dark, boozy, and hilarious tale from the LA underworld. A nameless barman tends a decaying bar in Hollywood and takes notes for a book about his clientele. Initially, he is morbidly amused by watching the regulars roll in and fall into their nightly oblivion, pitying them and their loneliness. In hopes of uncovering their secrets and motives, he establishes tentative friendships with them. He also knocks back pills indiscriminately and treats himself to gallons of Jameson's.

The Good Body is a triumphant blend of mordant humour and heartbreak. It tells the comic and poignant story of a retired pro-hockey ruffian named Bobby Bonaduce who is stubbornly ignoring a disease - multiple sclerosis - that may be killing him. Bobby returns to his hometown and scams his way into university in a misguided attempt to redeem his messy past and lay emotional claim to a son he abandoned twenty years earlier.