Michael Stanley is the pen name of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. The two are both South Africans and retired academics, Michael a mathematician and Stanley an educational psychologist. Michael lives in Knysna on the South African south coast, and Stanley splits his time between Minneapolis, Denmark, and Cape Town. Their award-winning mysteries, featuring Detective Kubu, are set in Botswana. Death of the Mantis was an Edgar finalist and Deadly Harvest an International Thriller Writers award finalist. The seventh Detective Kubu mystery, Facets of Death, was released in January 2020 by Poisoned Pen Press.

A stand-alone thriller, Shoot the Bastard, was published in June 2019 by Poisoned Pen Press. Outside North America, Orenda Books published it as Dead of Night. 

They have written and published many short stories and have edited an anthology of short stories set in hot places called Sunshine Noir.