Animals
praise for animals
“A savage, heartbreaking, and breathtakingly beautiful work that is as thrilling as it is important. Deeply researched and masterfully crafted…This is a book that will sweep you up and hold you within its pages until it is done with you.”
Peter Houlahan, author of Norco ’80
“Screenwriter Staples…makes the tragedy of animal trafficking vivid in his impressive debut…Staples skillfully weaves multiple plot strands, including CIA efforts to combat terrorism, with well-developed characters. His extensive research pays off in this moving, multifaceted tale.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Screenwriter Staples’s first novel provides a kaleidoscopic view of the horrors of African poaching…From the beginning…he excels in creating scene after scene of uncompromising cruelty and sadness. Above all, Staples brings out the beasts in his human cast.”
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright © 2021 by Will Staples
E-book published in 2021 by Blackstone Publishing
Cover design by Sean M. Thomas
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced
or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the
publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious.
Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental
and not intended by the author.
Trade e-book ISBN 978-1-0940-6590-8
Library e-book ISBN 978-1-0940-6589-2
Fiction / Thrillers / General
CIP data for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Blackstone Publishing
31 Mistletoe Rd.
Ashland, OR 97520
www.BlackstonePublishing.com
This is a story about animals,
some of which happen to be human.
Preface
Although wildlife trafficking is one of the largest illicit markets in the world (alongside narcotics, arms dealing, and human trafficking), very few law enforcement dollars are dedicated to investigating wildlife crimes. Thus, very little is actually known about how animals are trafficked. And most of the news stories about wildlife crimes center on poaching in sub-Saharan Africa or on the ivory markets of East Asia, with virtually no attention given to the dark underworld of corruption and organized crime that is driving the end of wildlife as we know it. It would be like knowing nothing about the drug war except that cocaine is produced in the jungles of South America and consumed in nightclubs in Los Angeles.
While the story you are about to read is fictional, the characters, locations, and story points are almost entirely rooted in fact. They are the products of hundreds of conversations with everyone from Dr. Jane Goodall to rangers in Africa, CIA officers, epidemiologists, and detectives in Hong Kong.
To experience the issue firsthand, I journeyed to seven countries on three continents. During the Southeast Asia section of the trip, where I was aided by Swiss environmentalist Karl Ammann, I purchased rhino horn and tiger parts in the black markets of Myanmar, was offered sautéed tiger meat (later confirmed by DNA tests) in a casino in Laos, infiltrated tiger and bear bile farms, went undercover as a buyer in the largest illegal rhino carving operation in Hanoi, visited doctors prescribing tiger and rhino as a cure for cancer, and was detained by a warlord’s security force in Special Region 4 of Myanmar for documenting wealthy tourists sneaking over the border to eat endangered animals.