PublishedWindmill Publishing, June 2019 |
ISBN9780099510666 |
FormatSoftcover, 320 pages |
Dimensions19.8cm × 12.9cm × 2cm |
A page-turning story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless quest for justice.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLD DAGGER AWARD
'A tale of obsession ... vivid and arresting' The Times
One summer evening in 2009, twenty-year-old musical prodigy Edwin Rist broke into the Natural History Museum at Tring, home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world. Once inside, Rist grabbed as many rare bird specimens as he was able to carry before escaping into the darkness.
Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist-deep in a river in New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide first told him about the heist. But what would possess a person to steal dead birds? And had Rist paid for his crime? In search of answers, Johnson embarked upon a worldwide investigation, leading him into the fiercely secretive underground community obsessed with the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying.
Was Edwin Rist a genius or narcissist? Mastermind or pawn?
Marijke is the Customer Service Supervisor at Boffins and has been a Boffin for over five years, and a bird fanatic for even longer. She reads anything interesting.
Musical prodigies, the natural history collections of Alfred Russell Wallace, and Victorian-era fly-tying experts come together with this stranger-than-fiction true crime. This book is fascinating, sometimes infuriating, and is well worth a read.
