The subplot regarding Michael Curtain--the American man who had disappeared many years before--and his mother coming to find out what happened to him appeared in the second book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, 'Tears of the Giraffe'. In the book, Curtain and his mother are described as white, but the showrunners cast CCH Pounder in the role of the mother. Pounder was nominated for an Emmy for this role.