The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is a series by the Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith. The first book in the series carries the same title as the series. It was first published in 1999 by Polygon Books. There are fourteen books in total that comprise this mystery series. The books are very popular and have been printed all over the world. They deal with a variety of issues, from women being self sufficient to the struggles facing parts of Africa today as well as many traditional problems, such as personal relationships as well as human emotions and motivations such as jealousy, greed, anger, and revenge