Follow Michael Stanley at https://www.facebook.com/MichaelStanleyBooks/

Michael Stanley is the writing name of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. Both natives of Africa, we have traveled regularly together to Botswana and Zimbabwe over the past twenty years to experience the country with its wide diversity and interesting peoples. Our books reflect the authentic Africa of the 21st century: not merely the politically unstable, desperately poor Africa of the nightly news, but also the emotional conflicts of people with one foot in traditional culture and the other in Western-instigated globalism. The new Africa is not a safari jungle, but a collection of diverse groups and nations struggling to find their way in a rapidly changing context.

FACETS OF DEATH (Currently available in North America. Out in the UK in April 2021)

"...easily one of the best heist novels I've read since Gerald Browne's classic 11 Harrowhouse." Bookpage starred review.

Facets of Death is a prequel to the popular Detective Kubu series set in Botswana. In the previous books, Kubu is the senior detective in the Criminal Investigation Department in Gaborone. A large man — as his nickname Kubu (hippopotamus) suggests – he investigates complex murder cases with southern African backstories.

Facets of Death is set in the late 1990s when Kubu first joins the Botswana CID as a raw detective. While he’s trying to be accepted by the current staff and to make a role for himself in the CID, a massive diamond heist takes place on the road from Jwaneng — home of the world’s richest diamond mine.

It’s immediately clear that this is no opportunistic robbery. The mine has a complicated security scheme in place, and Kubu and his boss, Assistant Superintendent Mabaku, immediately suspect an inside job. The robbers systematically eliminate all the witnesses, and then they are killed by the South African police, leaving the detectives with nothing to go on. Everyone who knew the mine’s security plan is a possible suspect, including the director of the CID and the owners of the mine. And Mabaku and Kubu can’t even trust the South African Police – maybe they grabbed the gems after they shot the robbers.

Kubu and Mabaku are sure they can solve the case if only their contacts can stay alive long enough to point them in the right direction. However, when one of the mine’s senior managers becomes the next victim, they are forced to set a trap for the crime’s mastermind. If it fails, their careers are over – in Kubu’s case before it’s even begun.

DEAD OF NIGHT (UK and outside North America) / SHOOT THE BASTARDS (North America) - STAND-ALONE THRILLER

When her friend Michael Davidson goes missing while researching a National Geographic story on rhino poaching and rhino-horn smuggling, investigative journalist Crystal Nguyen leaves the snow of Minnesota and heads to the heat of Africa to try to find him and to finish his story. But within a week she’s been hunting poachers, been hunted by their bosses, and been arrested in connection with a murder. And everyone is after a briefcase full of money that she doesn’t want, but can’t safely get rid of. She comes to realise how little she knows about Africa and war between the poachers and the conservation officers.

What she does know is that she’s determined to find Michael and that she’s committed to preventing a planned major operation in South Africa to secure a huge number of rhino horns. She goes undercover in Vietnam, trying to discover the truth before she’s exposed by the local mafia. Discovering the plot behind the money is only half the battle. Now she must convince the South African authorities to take action before it’s too late, both for the rhinos and for her.

In this stand-alone thriller, Michael Stanley, author of the award-winning Detective Kubu mystery series, introduces an intriguing new protagonist, and at the same time exposes one of the most vicious conflicts of southern Africa with its Asian puppet-masters.

THE DETECTIVE KUBU MYSTERIES

It was at the lion research center in the Savuti, an ancient dried-up lake in Botswana's Chobe National Park, that we realized how to conceal a perfect murder. We watched hyenas team up to drive lions off their fresh kills, then devour everything in sight, bones and all. By the next morning, no evidence remained of the carcass. Botswana offered the ideal setting for such a literary revelation. This was the kernel of the idea that led to our first book, A CARRION DEATH.

Our detective is Assistant Superintendent David Bengu of the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department. His nickname is Kubu because of his size - "kubu" being the Setswana word for hippopotamus. Hippos in the wild spend most of the day in pools or rivers, with all but their eyes and ears under water; they look deceptively docile, belying the fact that they kill more people in Africa than any other mammal, trampling whatever lies between them and their objective. So with Kubu. On the surface he appears harmless; a convivial man with a sly sense of humor who loves his wife, and is passionate about wine and music. But Kubu is a capable, wily policeman determined to rid Botswana of crime, no matter what gets in his way.

In A CARRION DEATH, Kubu is faced with a vicious plot involving blood diamonds, greed, and corruption, with a touch of the supernatural. The book is set in the arid south of Botswana and in the capital city, Gaborone.

A CARRION DEATH was a finalist for best debut mystery novel for the BARRY, MACAVITY and STRAND MAGAZINE CRITICS' awards. It was also shortlisted for the UK's Crime Writers Association DEBUT DAGGER award, and for the Minnesota Book Awards Genre Fiction.

In THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU (North America) / A DEADLY TRADE (UK and outside North America), Kubu has to investigate the murder of two supposed tourists at a camp in the lush north of the country along the beautiful Linyanti river. Across the river lie Namibia and Zimbabwe. Kubu has to delve into the past and the Rhodesian Bush War to unravel the mystery of the modern day killings.

DEATH OF THE MANTIS is set in the Kalahari and the back story is the plight of the Bushman (or San) peoples of the area. When a game ranger is found dead in a dry ravine, his corpse surrounded by three Bushmen, the local police arrest the nomads. Kubu investigates the case and is reunited with his old school friend Khumanego, a Bushman and advocate for his people. Khumanego claims the nomads are innocent and the arrests motivated by racist antagonism. The Bushmen are released, but soon after, another man is murdered in similar circumstances. Are the Bushmen to blame, or is it a copycat murder? Then there is a third murder. Again it points to the Bushmen. Kubu journeys into the depths of the Kalahari to find the truth. All his powers of detection are tested as well as his ability to stay alive...

DEATH OF THE MANTIS was a finalist for the ANTHONY and EDGAR awards for best paperback original mystery of 2011, as well as for Minnesota Book Awards Genre Fiction. The book won the BARRY Award for best paperback original mystery.

DEADLY HARVEST - the fourth Detective Kubu mystery - revolves around the pervasive belief in black magic in southern Africa and the potions of witch doctors who still produce great fear in many of the local people. It was a finalist for an ITW thriller award.

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY has as backstory the growing role of the Chinese in Africa and the pound of flesh they want for their aid and support. For Kubu it's very personal because his father is the death in the family - he is murdered apparently for no reason. Kubu battles with his grief at the same time as violence and corruption at the highest level.

DYING TO LIVE is the latest Detective Kubu mystery. An extraordinarily old Bushman is found dead in the Kalahari and the amazing youth of his organs sets off a hunt for a mysterious plant purported to extend life. The resulting greed leads to murder, as Kubu tries to deal with personal problems at the same time as reaching the heart of the case. Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review and said it was the best in the series so far!

We enjoy both a local and transglobal collaboration, mainly via e-mail and Skype. Michael lives in Johannesburg, South Africa; Stanley spends half the year in coastal South Africa and half in Minnesota.

For more about us, our books and Botswana, see http://www.michaelstanleybooks.com or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MichaelStanleyBooks/ and on Twitter @detectivekubu