If you get past the uncomfortable reptilian-like design on the cover of Will Staples’ novel “Animals,” know this: it only gets worse — and that’s the way the author wants it.

Uncomfortable is about the most tame adjective you can use to describe this haunting, impossibly important debut. Marrying three continents worth of research, including hundreds of conversations from those of Jane Goodall to the CIA, with the talent of a big-league screenwriter and video game scriptwriter (“Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation,” “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3”), Staples has the wheelhouse to produce a cinematic story delving deep into the underground world of global animal trafficking. And this is where he takes us, on a fictional journey with converging storylines, characters and locations that are grounded in fact.

When Kruger National Park ranger Cobus Venter is stymied by the restrictions of his job following the death of two colleagues in a shootout with rhino poachers, the veteran soldier quits and goes rogue — taking the law into his own hands to eradicate the international concern at the source. Crossing paths with American insurance agent Randall Knight, who has uncovered ground zero of a global pandemic resulting from exotic animal breeding, and Audrey Lam, a member of the Hong Kong Police Narcotics Bureau searching for the people who spiked with strychnine the rhino horn powder that nearly killed her seriously ill son, Venter’s efforts take him into a maze of corruption and organized crime where gambling, bribing and catering to the exotic tastes of the affluent are business as usual: “The whole world was for sale, Knight observed, and no amount of shopping at Whole Foods, of clicktivists’ retweeting statistics, or protests at liberal universities could stop the invisible iron fist of economics.”

The challenges before Venter, Knight and Lam are statistically damning, but challenging also is the reader’s journey into this world of corruption. Staples’ descriptions of tiger wine, the way bile is extracted from live bears and exports such as “pink tiger bones,” which involves “sedating the tiger, then skinning and deboning it alive so that the heart still pumped blood as the bones were harvested,” are the stuff of nightmares.
Which is exactly where Staples wants to take us — from ignorance to concern.

“I admittedly knew little about the world of animal trafficking when I began this project,” Staples writes, “but I ended up having what amounted to a front-row seat for the Sixth Extinction.”
The screenwriter is also putting his money where his text is: “My goal with this novel is to expose as many people as possible to this issue. To that end, all my income from this book will be donated to nonprofit organizations dedicated to protecting wildlife.”

In buying the book he’s asking us to do the same, which is a win-win. It’s a damn good story, and we all get a chance to help write the ending.

In his debut novel, Will Staples enters the dark world of animal trafficking and harvesting:

Protecting the Rhino is a dangerous and deadly job, you never know who is on your side or not. When two of SADF veteran Corbus Vector friends are murders protecting on of the last Rhino’s he has reached his breaking point. He wants to put a stop to the use of Rhino horn his own way. Embarking on a vigilante mission he plans to take down as many people and syndicates as he can. Meanwhile, insurance investigator Randall Knight is called to a road side zoo where all the big cats have died except one. Knight is suspicious of the cub’s origins and begins his own investigation into animal trafficking. Both men are headed to the darkest parts of SE Asia where the crime syndicates will do anything to keep the money in animal trafficking flowing.

I believe this book is a first for me as it deals with animal trafficking and harvesting. I have read plenty of books about drugs, murder, human trafficking etc, but never one dealing with animals. Let me tell you it is Absolutely heartbreaking, Animals dying for no purpose at all other than to feed human greed. Animal ripped away from their homes to be featured in a road side zoo and do not even get me started on the parts harvesting, just horrible. This book is never expletive in what happens to some of the animal but it doesn’t take too much to guess.

I think my favourite part of the book was that Staples frames the story with following the "product" of Rhino horn from Africa to Asia. He seems to understand the full circle of where the rhino horn comes from, what is done to find the rhinos, how it is shipped over seas and then those who use it for its "magical" powers.

The insurance side of things was also interesting, and not something that you hear or read about on a regular basis, of how animals in zoo are insured and what is done in order to get a new animal if something happens to an old one. There are really criminal markets for everything, but i think we have all known for a long time, that if is makes money, humans are willing to do it.

This was a really good debut novel and I like the international feel of the book. I look forward to reading another book by Staples.

Enjoy!!!

ANIMALS is a book I never expected to like but found it positively addictive. This story is one that needed to be told and Staples succeeded in delivering a gritty and candid ecothriller. I have to say...I am impressed.

This is the world of endangered animal poaching. It’s a terrible world, and haunting. And in this world insurance investigatior Randall Knight and Kruger National Park ranger Cobus Venter converge.

Full review on Murder in Common: https://murderincommon.com/2021/03/21/will-staples-animals/

A story that had me in tears, so much brutality and waste of life, so senseless. The more you know about what is happening the more you want to do something, it is such a helpless feeling.
Poor people who kill animals to feed their family, and why do the animals have to die, for their horns, feet, disgusting and so the men in charge get richer.
When you think of the horns of a rhinoceros is really like toenails, and people believe they cure cancer? I know different cultures have different beliefs, but this is bad.
I am so glad that the author is bringing awareness with this book, and he is donating the proceeds to help fight and bringing this issue to the forefront.
This is a fictional read, that is filled with facts, with the hope of bringing awareness!
I received this book through Net Galley and Blackstone Publishing, and was not required to give a positive review.

Animals excels at showing the horrors of animal trafficking, including its cascading effects on society with issues such as the drug trade and funding for terrorism.

Will Staples did extensive research for this book, and it absolutely shows in his writing. This is action/adventure with striking realism.

The story is plot-driven, with a wide variety of characters. I normally prefer character-driven stories, but here the animals’ plight is the focus, and it works perfectly. The content made me incredibly sad, which it should, but wow, humans, get it together already. The destruction we leave in our wake is horrifying.

I listened to this on audio, and the narrator works magic in his ability to not only capture each character’s personality, but also in mastering the wide variety of accents. I was totally invested.

Animals
by Will Staples
Narrated by Dion Graham
Blackstone Audiobooks

This book is based on extensive research by the author. The proceeds from this book will be going to help fight animal poaching and smuggling. I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me listen to this book.

The details and research that went into this book is really telling. There are things in here I never would have guessed was going on. I am not naive when it comes to animal smuggling and animal rights. I have tried to stay abreast of the news and laws but these things are so far behind the scenes...it's a wonder the author didn't get shot trying to find this information out.

This is a scary world but unfortunately it seems to be profitable for some. In this book, the author takes two fictional characters and on separate tracks, leads them through the maze of poaching and smuggling. Both want to end this.

The book is full of suspense and heartache. Corruption in all agencies at all levels. It seems money can buy just about everything and anybody. I hope a million people read this and each of them get 10 people to read it. This is something that needs spread world wide!