A "well-written, engaging detective story" (Kirkus Reviews, starred
review) 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 "vivid tale of obsession and international derring-do"
(Publishers Weekly), 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.
"Masterfully constructed" (The New York Times) and "entertaining and
illuminating" (The Washington Post), The Falcon Thief will whisk you
away 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.
