An interesting start to a new series with a unique protagonist in Crystal Nguyen. A journalist, she's concerned about her friend Michael, who has gone missing in Africa while working on a story about rhino horn smuggling. Intrepid she is-she takes off for South Africa and quickly finds herself immersed in a dangerous web. It's a well plotted and entertaining read.

This is the first in the Crystal Nguyen series. Far more a thriller series than the Detective Kubu series, and minus the humor and family relationships of Kubu. Fascinating to have a female Vietnamese lead character comfortable in many worlds. This was a humdinger. Crystal Nguyen follows in the footsteps of her friend Michael Davidson to try to find out why and where he has disappeared to. Nguyen thinks she is ready for anything as she digs deeper into his research until she goes undercover with some of the anti-poaching forces in South Africa and discovers the "safest" method of dealing with poachers is just "shoot the bastards." If, that is, you can tell who is who.... Very twisty, very violent, very fast-moving. very enlightening. This series has a lot of potential.

Shoot the Bastards is the first in what will surely be a series of books featuring Minnesota journalist Crystal Nguyen. Nguyen writes about wildlife on the brink of extinction and the illegal human poachers of wolves, elephants, and rhinos. In this book, a fellow reporter she thinks could become a romantic interest disappears while reporting on rhino poaching in South Africa, Mozabique, and the market in Vietnam. Worried about him, she get National Geographic to hire her to finish the article and if she finds him while doing so, that’s a bonus.

She flies to South Africa and quickly finds herself in one dangerous situation after another, going from frying pan to fire more than once. She’s intrepid and occasionally foolhardy, but she is also smart and wiley. She can find all sorts of ways of finessing her way out of trouble.



I liked Shoot the Bastards quite a bit and think it did a great job of setting up a new series. We didn’t spend too much time on back story, letting her history come out in natural bits and pieces where it made sense. It felt like a second, not a first, which to me is a good thing since so many first in a series spend too much on explanation. There is a strong sense of place and her frying pan to fire sequences are well-paced. She’s bold and has good instincts, though reacting to someone telling you to trust no one does not put them on the top of my list of people not to trust. I just don’t react to someone saying “Trust no one” with “OK, well I sure won’t trust you.” I might still not trust them, but good advice is good advice.

It was interesting to learn that rhino poachers and smugglers agree with conservationists that the trade should be illegal because that keeps the trade so profitable. That’s the same as drug traffickers.

I received an e-galley of Shoot the Bastards from the publisher through NetGalley.

The story is well written and the settings are interesting, but the plot is based on strange and unnatural behavior, and there are also some logical errors. The authors are trying to get a lot of action out of a basically simple situation.

I initially chose Shoot the Bastards because of the African setting. I've never read anything by this author before, but I enjoyed the story. The heroine is fighting an injustice that is believable. She is a bit typical in some regards, stupid decisions, naivete, lucky, etc.,but I found her entertaining and likeable. The story moves at a good pace and kept my interest. Overall, it's a good read. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a huge fan of Michael Stanley's work since discovering A Carrion Death on a display at a now long-gone Borders bookstore. The authors continuing portrayal of Detective Kubu Bengu is deeply layered, as are their stories set in various places in Botswana, which they bring to life in ways the limits of Alexander McCall Smith's books cannot match. Their books often feature a contemporary issue or set of issues. Shoot the Bastards is a stand-alone novel that focuses on the illegal rhino horn trade and features reporter and biathlon athlete Crys(tal) Ngyuen who is Vietnamese-born but who was raised in the U.S. All of these facts make for a story that's just a little too manufactured for my taste. Crys never listens to advice, wondering more than once why she hadn't learned her lesson. I had the same wonderment. Well, we readers know that if she had there would be no action-packed story. Despite its flaws - an unbelievable hero, incredible luck and coincidences, and more than a bit of stupidity among the characters, the point of the book - its focus on a beautiful species endangered by human beings and the brutal killing of man and beast to satisfy a niche market filled with people willing to pay well for powdered rhino horn - makes for a worthwhile read. Crys is no Kubu and I hope that should the authors decide to use her in another book they take more time to develop her as a more believable person.