Mystery set mostly in the Bush – South Africa

23rd September 2018

Dead of Night by Michael Stanley, mystery set mostly in the bush – South Africa.

Crystal Nguyen, a freelance journalist, has lost contact with her friend (and potential lover) Michael Davidson whilst the latter was investigating a story about rhino poaching and rhino-horn smuggling in South Africa for National Geographic.  The last she heard from him he was just about to uncover a big story and then silence. Since rhino poachers are rarely the nicest of people, everyone fears the worst but Crystal manages to persuade National Geographic to let her take over the writing of the story and, at the same time, hunt for the missing journalist.

Within a week, she is plunged into the thick of the dirty business.  In swift succession, she accompanies one of the anti-poaching teams as they go about their business, finds herself hunted by some extremely vicious poaching bosses and is arrested and thrown into jail in connection with a murder.  To make matters worse, Colonel Mabula, the Head detective at the Giyani police station, thinks she is involved in the misappropriation of a briefcase full of money, that seems to hold the key to everything.

This kind of thriller really wouldn’t be my first choice in terms of reading material but I was completely hooked right from the start.  It’s tightly written and pacy and the characterisation is very skilful.  Crystal, winner of the 2017 Minnesota Women’s Biathlon and all-round tough cookie (and boy, are we grateful for these qualities as the events unfold) is a well-rounded creation.  Her naivety at the outset of the novel is soon lost as she discovers treachery and deceit all around her and the reader is carried along with her into some dark and confusing places where it is difficult to know who to trust. I loved the development of the relationship between Crystal and Colonel Mabula – delightfully subtle and underplayed.

Dead of Night takes us on a rather breath-taking journey from Minnesota to South Africa to Vietnam and back to South Africa again, but it is in the description of the South African bush that the setting really comes to life. Crystal talks of “catching the Africa disease” – referring to the way that the country gets under your skin and in this novel the descriptions of the bush with its unique flowers, smells, insects and the darkness of the night skies and brilliance of the stars give the reader a tiny taste of that Africa disease.

This novel is truthfully not for the faint-hearted.  The writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip leave the reader in no doubt that rhino poaching and the attempts to eradicate it involve the most drastic and brutal action; there are several descriptions of torture that have me twitching still.  Dead of Night may belong with the darkest of Noir writing but it is also utterly thrilling, multi-layered, skilfully executed, educational, thought-provoking and ultimately a really satisfying read.

Ellen for the TripFiction Team

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