If you want a quick mystery that you can curl up with and learn something about Botswana, and its culture, look no further than Alexander McCall Smith’s The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency #8). Smith’s writing is  easy on the eyes and mind — it is the perfect summer beach or winter cozening up by the fire read. The mysteries, three in this novel, are not intricately layered or overly complex like other mystery series, but it need not be, because of Smith’s authentic and up close and personal description of Botswana and her people. Unlike these other series, I felt like I had been dropped into Botswana and was working right alongside:

Mma Ramotswe in her quest to figure out why three patients died in the same bed on three different Fridays during the same time period;

the newly monetarily-endowed and engaged Mma Makutsi as she is pondering quitting the detective agency run by Ramotswe and investigating some suspicious thefts at a local printer;

and

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, Ramotswe’s husband as he sets about to discover the identity of a mistress of a supposed philandering husband, while also keeping a watchful eye on his apprentices who work for Matekoni in his automotive repair garage.

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive is a story of love, learning to trust, letting go, and welcoming back.