{"id":479,"date":"2012-02-25T14:44:49","date_gmt":"2012-02-25T20:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=479"},"modified":"2012-02-25T14:45:31","modified_gmt":"2012-02-25T20:45:31","slug":"michael-stanley-death-of-the-mantis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/michael-stanley-death-of-the-mantis\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Stanley: Death of the Mantis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The third book in Michael Stanley\u2019s Detective Kubu series set in Botswana is the best one so far, which is saying a lot.\u00a0 Stanley\u2019s novels are a complex and nuanced look at Botswana and Southern Africa, combined with a good mystery puzzle and one of the best detectives in contemporary crime fiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Let me describe Kubu, and see if he sounds at all familiar to any crime fiction fan:\u00a0 he\u2019s overweight, doesn\u2019t care, loves food and wine,\u00a0 is a connoisseur of both, and is a brilliant detective.\u00a0 While \u201cMichael Stanley\u201d\u00a0 (actually two charming fellows, Stan Trollip and Michael Sears) discount any resemblance to Nero Wolfe, for any mystery fan, it\u2019s plain to see the kinship between the two detectives.<\/p>\n

Where Kubu (the Botswana word for \u201cHippo\u201d) differs from Nero Wolfe is in his happy and committed homelife.\u00a0 Also he has no servants. Also he will often and willingly leave home, though never without proper provisions. The snapshots of normal Botswanan family life are one of the strongest parts of\u00a0 all the novels; in this one Kubu and his wife Joy are adjusting to life with their new daughter, Tumi.<\/p>\n

The thing that made this book the strongest in the series, to me, was it\u2019s portrayal of the culture of the African Bushmen, a tribe of tiny men and women who are able to disappear into the desert and regard all parts of life as interconnected: nature, men, animals.\u00a0 To violate one part is to violate every other part and even yourself.<\/p>\n

Africa and modern life are encroaching on the Bushmen.\u00a0 As it happens, one of Kubu\u2019s old school buddies is a Bushman, the two having bonded over being bullied in school (one for being fat, one for being a tiny member of another culture).\u00a0 This man says passionately to Kubu:\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBut what of the future?…The world is closing in like a pack of hyenas circling.\u00a0 You can\u2019t seal yourself in a time capsule and hope to escape.\u201d<\/p>\n

This passion on the part of Kubu\u2019s old friend comes to light when two Bushmen are arrested for the murder of a government employee out in the Bush.\u00a0 Kubu steps in and begins to unravel the case, one that leads to an obsessive mining prospector, looking for diamonds.\u00a0 Like any good detective novelist, Stanley includes red herrings, plot twists, and unexpected developments along with good old fashioned police work and an adventure sequence in the wilds of Africa.<\/p>\n

The grounding Stanley gives the novel in the culture of Botswana really makes it special.\u00a0 The portions relating to the Bushmen and their culture make it sparkle even more \u2013 the virtual diamond already discovered by the reader.\u00a0 Meeting Detective Kubu will likely make anyone want a closer acquaintance.\u00a0 Here\u2019s to many more novels in this wonderful series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third book in Michael Stanley\u2019s Detective Kubu series set in Botswana is the best one so far, which is saying a lot.\u00a0 Stanley\u2019s novels are a complex and nuanced look at Botswana and Southern Africa, combined with a good mystery puzzle and one of the best detectives in contemporary crime fiction. Let me describe … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions\/482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}