PublishedSimon & Schuster, April 2020 |
ISBN9781501191886 |
FormatHardcover, 336 pages |
Dimensions21.3cm × 14cm × 3.3cm |
A rollicking true-crime adventure about a rogue who trades in rare birds and their eggs-and the wildlife detective determined to stop him. On May 3, 2010, an Irish national named Jeffrey Lendrum was apprehended at Britain's Birmingham International Airport with a suspicious parcel strapped to his stomach.
Inside were fourteen rare peregrine falcon eggs snatched from a remote cliffside in Wales. So begins a tale almost too bizarre to believe, following the parallel lives of a globe-trotting smuggler who spent two decades capturing endangered raptors worth millions of dollars as race champions-and Detective Andy McWilliam of the United Kingdom's National Wildlife Crime Unit, who's hell bent on protecting the world's birds of prey. The Falcon Thief whisks readers from the volcanoes of Patagonia to Zimbabwe's Matobo National Park, and from the frigid tundra near the Arctic Circle to luxurious aviaries in the deserts of Dubai, all in pursuit of a man who is reckless, arrogant, and gripped by a destructive compulsion to make the most beautiful creatures in nature his own. It's a story that's part true-crime narrative, part epic adventure-and wholly unputdownable until the very last page.
Mike has been the Boffins storeman forever, it seems. Mike is also a writer of fiction and poetry. His 2 novels Old Jazz and The Music of Dunes were published by Fremantle Press, and are still available on request at Boffins. He has also published short fiction and poetry in various Australian literary journals. His reading tastes are wide, but mostly fiction and biography.
If you had ever thought the theft of rare birds eggs and endangered raptors would not stack up with true crime sagas, Joshua Hammer’s book will persuade you otherwise. Detective Andy McWilliam of the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit becomes obsessed with bringing Irish national Jeffrey Lendrum to justice . The book has international scope and is full of quirky characters who act on their compulsions and, in a lot of cases, very large cash rewards. An unexpected page turner for this reader, as unputdownable as the eggs in the hands of their thief.
