Parents and Children

This is the narrative's primary thematic consideration, developed through and/or manifesting on two main levels. The first is that of plot or narrative, in that most of the events in the book's main plots (the "establishment of the agency" plot and the "missing boy" plot) and at least one of its sub-plots (the Patel case) are defined by close relationships between biological parents and children. It could be argued that some of the other secondary plots are also defined by parent/child relationships, but in a more metaphorical way. Specifically, Mma Ramotswe becomes involved in the Hector Lepodise and Dr. Maketsi mysteries at least partly because the men requesting her help are, in some ways, father figures to her and because she feels a degree of loyalty to them. On the other side of the coin, her involvement in the Happy Bapetsi case (in which...