Dead of Night by Michael Stanley #RandomThingsTour #DeadofNight

FIRST-EVER stand-alone thriller by the international, bestselling authors of the Detective Kubu series

FABULOUS Vietnamese-American FEMALE protagonist STUNNING African and Vietnamese setting
Explores the relevant and devastating Rhinoceros trade

@detectivekubu’s FIRST EVER #standalone #thriller set in #Vietnam & #SouthAfrica … #DeadOfNight

Description

When freelance journalist, Crystal Nguyen, heads to South Africa, she thinks she’ll be researching an article on rhino-horn smuggling for National Geographic, while searching for her missing colleague. But, within a week, she’s been hunting poachers, hunted by their bosses, and then arrested in connection with a murder. And everyone is after a briefcase full of money that may hold the key to everything.
Fleeing South Africa, 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. She has a shocking story to tell, if she survives long enough to tell it…
Fast-paced, relevant and chilling, Dead of Night is a stunning new thriller that exposes one of the most vicious conflicts on the African continent…

My thoughts

A fascinating book which has Crys following in another journalists footsteps in order to find him after he disappears when investigating the smuggling of rhino horn from South Africa to Vietnam. You learn such a lot but, of course, this is fiction so you also get a fast-paced, action thriller with a female protagonist who is quite fearless and has a deep sense of right and wrong even if she isn’t always able to be honest.

This is a stand alone from Michael Stanley, although it would be very easy to see a series involving Crys, it is well written and keeps you engrossed whilst demonstrating how difficult it must be to stop this sort of appalling trade in animals. The book brings South Africa to mind stunningly and makes you feel you are right there – and wouldn’t that be lovely, although not quite in Crys’ situation!

Crys gets herself into all sorts of difficult situations and uses some great ways of getting out of them, she’s certainly a woman not to mess with. It’s terrific to have a female lead character like her to read.

The action is fast, tense and takes you from the US to South Africa via Switzerland, where you can take a quick breath, to Vietnam and back to South Africa. It’s breathtaking the action and the scenery; and the story will have you going through all sorts of emotions most definitely on behalf of the rhinos but also on behalf of the humans who, highlighted in the character of Bongani, often find themselves put in very difficult situations. It will make you think about the plight of the rhino and other animals. How we humans treat them, treat our fellow humans, how our circumstances and our natures can allow such things to happen. There are big questions behind this story, thought-provoking and difficult.

This is a terrific book which I certainly recommend.

With thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on board the #RandomThingsTour and Orenda Books for the eARC. These are my own thoughts and I have not received any form of payment for them.

#RandomThingsTour

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Information

Publisher:    Orenda (15 July 2018)

Language:    English                          Paperback: 320 pages

ISBN-10: 1912374250                         ISBN-13: 978-1912374250

Buy:                Dead of Night              Waterstones       Kobo

Author:  Michael Stanley is the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. Both were born in South Africa and have worked in academia and business. On a flying trip to Botswana, they watched a pack of hyenas hunt, kill, and devour a wildebeest, eating both flesh and bones. That gave them the premise for their first mystery, A Carrion Death, which introduced Detective ‘Kubu’ Bengu of the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department. It was a finalist for five awards, including the CWA Debut Dagger. The series has been critically acclaimed, and their third book, Death of the Mantis, won the Barry Award and was a finalist for an Edgar award. Deadly Harvest was a finalist for an International Thriller Writers’ award. Dead of Night is their first stand-alone thriller.