"The dark winter nights of Minnesota seem to close in on investigative journalist Crystal Nguyen as she realizes that her close friend Michael Davidson has disappeared while researching a story on rhino poaching and rhino-horn smuggling in Africa. Crystal, fearing the worst, wrangles her own assignment on the continent. Within a week in Africa she's been hunting poachers ("Shoot the bastards," she's told), hunted by their bosses, and questioned in connection with a murder--and there's still no sign of Michael. Crystal quickly realizes how little she knows about Africa and about the war between poachers and conservation officers. What she does know is she must find Michael, and she's committed to preventing a major plot to secure a huge number of horns ... but exposing the financial underworld supporting the rhino-horn market is only half the battle. Equally important is convincing South African authorities to take action before it's too late--for the rhinos, and for Crystal."--Back cover.

A fascinating insight into Breaker Morant and the question of morality and human life. The question of "The Breaker's" innocence is still being fiercely debated more than a century after Lieutenant Harry Morant and Lieutenant Peter Handcock were shot on a lonely veldt outside Pretoria at dawn on 27 February, 1902, by a British military firing squad. Shoot Straight, You Bastards! is a universal account of greed, ambition and the power of the political machine that crushes anyone who gets in the way. In much the same way that Bruce Beresford's award-winning feature film Breaker Morant captured the popular imagination, Shoot Straight, You Bastards! is an explosive read, as controversial an event today as it was 101 years ago. In every war there is a character like Morant - a rebellious spirit who ends up on the wrong side of the "great cause". This updated edition includes an appendix containing dramatic new evidence that Kitchener gave orders to "take no prisoners". Expert legal opinion supporting the Breaker's innocence and a strong campaign to secure a proper judicial review combine here in a story Australians have waited more than a century to read!

Murder or justice? This question is still being fiercely debated a century after Lieutenant harry Morant and Lieutenant Peter Handcock were shot on a lonely veldt outside Pretoria at dawn on 27th February 1902, by a British military firing squad. -- back cover.

"From Minnesota to South Africa to Mozambique to Vietnam, Michael Stanley's Shoot the Bastards is an extraordinary tale of the extreme measures taken to combat international poaching and smuggling."--C.J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wolf Pack When her friend Michael Davidson goes missing while researching a National Geographic story on rhino poaching and rhino-horn smuggling, investigative journalist Crystal Nguyen wangles a NG assignment to try to find him and finish his story. Within a week in Africa she's been hunting poachers, hunted by their bosses, and arrested in connection with a murder. Plus, everyone is after a briefcase full of money that she doesn't want, but can't safely get rid of. Crystal quickly realizes how little she knows about Africa and about the war between poachers and conservation officers. What she does know is she must find Michael and she's committed to preventing a major plot to secure a huge number of horns. She heads to the major market, Vietnam, dodging the local mafia while uncovering leads. Exposing the financing is only half the battle. Harder will be convincing South African authorities to take action before it's too late-for the rhinos and for her. Michael Stanley, author of the award-winning Detective Kubu mystery series, introduces an intriguing new protagonist while exposing one of southern Africa's most vicious conflicts with its Asian puppet-masters.

Minnesota’s toughest farm boys take on Iraqi insurgents in one of the most irreverent and outrageous memoirs to come out of the Iraq War. When they deployed for Iraq, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 136th Infantry Regiment of the Minnesota National Guard, was mostly composed of farm kids from the Midwest. But make no mistake—these boys could replace a tank track on the side of the road using nothing but a crescent wrench, Zippo lighter, and a two-by-four. Once they arrived, they fought alongside the Marine Corps in Anbar province through the deadliest period of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bravo Company earned the nickname “Bristol’s Bastards” after USMC Colonel George Bristol, commanding officer of the IMEF Headquarters Group, adopted this band of fierce warriors as one of his own. Specialist Nick Maurstad, a member of Bristol’s Bastards, brings to life the experience of fighting in Iraq: kicking down doors, dodging IEDs, battling insurgents in the small towns surrounding Fallujah, and trying to help one another survive in the deadliest place on earth.

With a new Introduction by the author, this “erudite and brilliantly readable book” (The Observer, London) expertly dissects the political, economic, and social origins of Western civilization to reveal a culture cripplingly enslaved to crude notions of rationality and expertise. With a new introduction by the author, this “erudite and brilliantly readable book” (The Observer, London) astutely dissects the political, economic and social origins of Western civilization to reveal a culture cripplingly enslaved to crude notions of rationality and expertise. The Western world is full of paradoxes. We talk endlessly of individual freedom, yet we’ve never been under more pressure to conform. Our business leaders describe themselves as capitalists, yet most are corporate employees and financial speculators. We call our governments democracies, yet few of us participate in politics. We complain about invasive government, yet our legal, educational, financial, social, cultural and legislative systems are deteriorating. All these problems, John Ralston Saul argues, are largely the result of our blind faith in the value of reason. Over the past 400 years, our “rational elites” have turned the modern West into a vast, incomprehensible, directionless machine, run by process-minded experts—“Voltaire’s bastards”—whose cult of scientific management is empty of both sense and morality. Whether in politics, art, business, the military, entertain­ment, science, finance, academia or journalism, these experts share the same outlook and methods. The result, Saul maintains, is a civilization of immense technological power whose ordinary citizens are increasingly excluded from the decision-making process. In this wide-ranging anatomy of modern society and its origins—whose “pages explode with insight, style and intellectual rigor” (Camille Paglia, The Washington Post)—Saul presents a shattering critique of the political, economic and cultural estab­lishments of the West.