Last summer, when I was recuperating from surgery, a friend sent me a care package that included the book, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Hooked from the first page, I read each installment in the eight-book series back-to-back.

I was lured by author Alexander McCall Smith’s main character, Precious Ramotswe, called Mma. Ramotswe in the story. A woman of traditional build, as she describes herself, Mma. Ramotswe uses her innate kindness and intelligence to solve the mysteries that  are brought to her agency — the first and only ladies’ detective agency in Botswana.

These are no Mission Impossible-type cases where dead bodies crop up or bullets fly through the streets. Mma. Ramotswe’s cases are  everyday mysteries like missing persons cases and embezzlement.

After eight books in the series, Smith returns with his ninth release, The Miracle at Speedy Motors, which will be available Tuesday, April 15.

In his latest Mma. Ramotswe saga, the author once again employs his poignant and practical prose that make the books a joy to read.

As the tale opens, Mma. Ramotswe and Mma. Grace Makutsi, her associate detective, are receiving threatening letters.

“Fat lady: you watch out! And you too, the one with the big glasses. You watch out too!,” reads a note left at the detective agency.

The agency  is housed in a tiny office inside the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, the garage of Mma. Ramotswe’s husband, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. A soft-spoken man, in this book, Matekoni is banking on a doctor’s miracle cure to heal the couple’s adopted daughter, Motholeli, who is in a wheelchair.

As the book unfolds, Mma. Ramotswe teaches us that miracles don’t have to be huge Moses-parting-the-Red-Sea productions. But finding unexpected love, seeing the value in someone you dismissed or the miracle of rain during a drought are the everyday miracles of life.

In recent weeks, the antics and adventures of the animated detective have been produced on the small screen. On Easter Sunday, the BBC released the first of 13 television episodes of the book series to rave reviews.

The television series stars neo-soul diva Jill Scott as Mma. Ramotswe, and Dream Girl and Broadway star Anika Noni Rose as Grace Makutsi. HBO is planning to air the episodes in the U.S. later this year.

But until then, American fans of the series can contain themselves with the Miracle at Speedy Motors. And for local mystery lovers who have yet to discover the wonderful world of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective series, I dare you to read just one book and not get hooked.