Mma Precious Ramotswe: Owner of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana. She is self taught as a detective, and generally successful in resolving the cases brought to her. In her youth, she married a musician who was cruel to her. She had a baby who died soon after birth, and learned she could have no more children. She is in her thirties. She recently became engaged to marry Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. She drives a tiny white van which she has had for 11 years.
Obed Ramotswe: Late father of Precious, who was a strong and wise man. She loves him dearly and often thinks of him as she solves her cases, and as she decides to become engaged to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni and accept the orphans he took in.
Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni: Owner of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors garage, and possibly the best mechanic in Botswana. He is a very kind man, in his forties.
Mma Grace Makutsi: She is the secretary to Mma Ramotswe, very efficient, known for scoring 97 on her final exam at the secretarial college. She wears large glasses. She is one of a large family, and she struggled to pay the fees for her education. She has good insight into many situations, but lacks the ease in viewing life that marks her employer. She is in her twenties.
Mma Silvia Potokwane: Matron of the orphan farm outside Gaborone. She is a most persuasive woman, in seeking help for her orphans and keeping the place running. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni donates his time and skill to keep water pumps and the vehicles in running condition. He has known her since his childhood, as she was a friend of his mother.
Florence Pena: Maid to Mr. J.L.B. for many years. She is upset that her employer is engaged to Mma Ramotswe, who calls her out for the dirty state of his house on her first visit there. She plots to get Mma Ramotswe arrested for having a gun in her home, which plot turns on her, so that she is arrested for having a gun in her own house.
Motholeli: Twelve-year-old girl now living at the orphan farm. Her mother died when she was 7, of snake bite. The custom of her people was to bury a newborn still nursing with the mother, if the mother died for any reason. Motholeli recovered her brother from the shallow grave and headed for the road, where a kind couple picked her up. She and the baby were in hospital, as Motholeli had tuberculosis and the boy needed care. Recovered from the worst of it, a woman at the hospital takes the two of them home. She has a recurrence of TB that leaves her unable to walk, and she uses a wheelchair. When that family must relocate for the husband's job, she and her young brother are placed at the orphan farm, a few months before the story starts.
Puso: Five years younger brother of Motholeli. He is a lively boy, well-behaved like his sister, who has been caring for him since his birth. He and his sister are of the Basarwa people of Gabarone, hunter-gatherers who live in the bush.
Andrea Curtin: American widow, age 55, who lived in Gaborone ten to twelve years earlier with her husband and son. The son disappeared in Botswana after she and her husband returned to the US. Her husband died a few years earlier, and she seeks resolution of the fate of her son, asking Precious Ramotswe to help her.
Michael Curtin: Son of American client of Mma Ramotswe, who arrived in Gaborone with his parents just after completing high school. He put off college for a year to stay in Africa. He joined a community of people who thought they could farm the desert near Molepolole, a city about 50 km from Gabarone. He disappeared ten years before the story begins, and no investigations at the time revealed what happened to him.
Dr. Oswald Ranta: Professor of economics who lived in the community ten years earlier, and who knew the facts of the fate of Mrs. Curtin's son. He is a man with evil in his character, a man of no morals, who is accustomed to ordering people about, mistreating women and lying to manipulate people.
Carla Smit: Michael's lover and mother of his son, at the community in the rural area near Molepolole. She took up with Ranta as well. She is an Afrikaans woman from South Africa. After Botswana, she took a job in Bulawayo after leaving Botswana. She has a nine-year-old son.
Mr. Letsenyane Badule: Owner of his own butcher shop, Honest Deal Butchery, and a man who had risen in another company based on his ability to root out dishonesty and thievery that increased the success of that company. He is married and has a son. His wife is a beautiful woman, dressing in the best of taste. He does not understand how she has the money for her clothes, nor how she found the money to pay for tuition for their son's private schooling. He is very proud of his son. She is not home much. He comes to Mma Ramotswe to learn the truth, as he fears his wife is seeing another man.
Rose: Maid to Mma Ramotswe. She is conscientious and reliable, a strong contrast to Florence Peno, the maid the Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.
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