Michael Stanley is a pseudonym for the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. Their latest novel, FACETS OF DEATH, is a prequel to their award-winning Detective Kubu series set in Botswana. Nordic noir (aka Scandinavian noir) has become an enormously popular genre of crime fiction over the last couple of decades. But in this enlightening essay, Stanley maintains that the homicide rate in these stories, many of which take place in cold climates, requires an unreasonable suspension of belief --- and they have statistics to back this up.

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Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, collectively known as Michael Stanley, have been writing the Detective Kubu mysteries set in Botswana for the past 15 years. About five years ago, they decided to take a break from their long-running series to pen a stand-alone thriller that focuses on rhino poaching and rhino-horn smuggling in Africa. In this fascinating essay, Michael and Stanley talk about their research for the book, titled SHOOT THE BASTARDS, and the numerous challenges they faced as they were getting to know their protagonist, investigative journalist Crystal Nguyen.

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