Michael Stanley is a pseudonym for the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. The duo has written six mysteries set in Botswana featuring Assistant Superintendent David “Kubu” Bengu, with a seventh book set to release in January 2020. In the meantime, they have penned SHOOT THE BASTARDS, a stand-alone thriller that introduces an intriguing protagonist in a new setting.

Crystal Nguyen, a young Vietnamese immigrant to Minnesota, has established herself as a well-known investigative wildlife journalist and columnist with a Duluth newspaper writing about endangered Canadian wolves. This has led to a friendship with New York Times journalist Michael Davidson, who has recently left for South Africa after landing a coveted National Geographic assignment there researching a story on rhino poaching and rhino-horn smuggling. Crystal and Michael have been keeping in touch electronically since he arrived at the Tshukudu Game Reserve in Mozambique. However, his last communiqué, nearly a month earlier, was “I think I’m really onto something.” And Crystal has not heard from him since. Emails, voicemails and Skype messages all remain unanswered.

"If you’re looking for an adventure featuring faraway places with strange-sounding names, then SHOOT THE BASTARDS is the fast-paced and exciting read of the summer that you will not want to miss."

Crystal talks to Michael’s editor at National Geographic, who is equally concerned about his long and sudden silence. Through her journalistic credentials, she is able to persuade the magazine to make a deal to follow up on Michael’s whereabouts. If she is able to locate him and/or complete his assignment within the six-week deadline, the publication will pick up her expenses.

When Crystal arrives at the game reserve, she learns more about where Michael has been and contacts local authorities with whom he has met. She joins the safari tour groups and befriends locals who know of Michael’s assignment. There she finds that the rhino-horn trade is profitable not only to the poachers but also to the natives who can sell the ground-up horn to help support their families. It is a deadly, dangerous game to all involved. Thousands of rhinos are being killed each year, although reserves are able to spare many of these rare animals as they remove the horns, which grow back, to be ground into the precious product.

The primary market for the rhino horn is in Crystal’s native country of Vietnam, where superstition and medicinal use are still rampant. So, although she speaks flawless English, she is also fluent in her native tongue, which proves useful in her contacts, but also makes the local police suspicious of her motives.

We follow Crystal from Mozambique to Phnom Penh to Geneva, Switzerland, and back to Africa, as she tries to uncover any trace of Michael. It is a game of “who do you trust” as she meets up with safari guides, conservation officials, the corrupt local police and Wildlife NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) officials in a multi-million-dollar trade as she races to save Michael’s life. The search turns deadly as she zeroes in on his location, and she is barely able to escape with her life.

If you’re looking for an adventure featuring faraway places with strange-sounding names, then SHOOT THE BASTARDS is the fast-paced and exciting read of the summer that you will not want to miss.