I am delighted to be on the blog tour today for Michael Stanley’s Dying to Live. I have previously enjoyed books in this series, and you can read my reviews for Deadly Harvest and A Death in the Family here.

Genre: Crime fiction

Stars: 4

Links: Amazon UK, Amazon US, and Waterstones.

 

The Blurb:

The body of a Bushman is discovered near the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and the death is written off as an accident. But all is not as it seems. An autopsy reveals that although he’s clearly very old, his internal organs are puzzlingly young. What’s more, an old bullet is lodged in one of his muscles … but where is the entry wound? When the body is stolen from the morgue and a local witch doctor is reported missing, Detective ‘Kubu’ Bengu gets involved. As Kubu and his brilliant young colleague, Detective Samantha Khama, follow the twisting trail through a confusion of rhino-horn smugglers, foreign gangsters and drugs manufacturers, the wider and more dangerous the case becomes… A fresh, new slice of ‘Sunshine Noir’, Dying to Live is a classic tale of greed,
corruption and ruthless thuggery, set in one of the world’s most beautiful landscapes, and featuring one of crime fiction’s most endearing and humane detectives.

My Review:

Dark, draped in local customs, and a setting that envelops you, my third crime-solving fiction outing with Detective Kubu didn’t disappoint.

The body of an old Bushman is discovered, but the autopsy reveals youthful organs and an unexplained bullet. Detectives Kubu and Khama are on the case, and it starts to look more and more complex. And as if rituals, smuggling, and murder weren’t enough, personal problems also rear their ugly head as our heroes try to juggle life with death…

The characterisation was wonderful, and the plot tight and controlled. But, like the other books in this series (and it can be read as a standalone), this book is all about the setting. The culture in the book blankets you with its smells, its characters, its customs, and its life. It transports you, like every good book, into its world. More, please!

*Thank you to the publisher for my free review copy.