The falcon thief : a true tale of adventure, treachery, and the hunt for the perfect bird

Title:

Author:

Hammer, Joshua, 1957- author.

Personal Author:

Hammer, Joshua, 1957- author.

ISBN:

9781501191886

Physical Description:

xiv, 317 pages ; 23 cm

Contents:

Prologue -- The airport -- The investigator -- The interview -- The art of falconry -- Rhodesia -- Liverpool -- The trial -- The collectors -- AfricaXtreme -- Dubai -- Operation Chilly -- Busted -- The unit -- The Rhondda Valley -- Prison -- Patagonia -- Gauteng -- Epilogue.

Abstract:

"A rollicking true-crime adventure about a rogue who trades in rare birds and their eggs--and the wildlife detective determined to stop him"-- Provided by publisher.

On May 3, 2010, Irish national 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. Hammer follows 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 is hell bent on protecting the world's birds of prey. It's a story that's part true-crime narrative, part epic adventure-- and wholly unputdownable. -- adapted from jacket

Subject Term:

TRUE CRIME / Heists & Robberies.

NATURE / Animals / Birds.

TRAVEL / Special Interest / Adventure.

Falcons.

Wild bird industry.

Undercover wildlife agents.

Genre:

True crime stories.

Summary:

"A rollicking true-crime adventure about a rogue who trades in rare birds and their eggs--and the wildlife detective determined to stop him"--

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Belmont	Book	364.16 H224	Searching... Unknown
Searching... East End	Book	364.16 H224	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	364.16 H224	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	364.16 H	Searching... Unknown
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Searching... Westover Hills	Book	364.16 H224	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

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.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

The story of an unrepentant birds'-egg thief who found a lucrative market for rare wild falcons on the Arabian Peninsula.In his latest page-turner, Hammer (The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race To Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts, 2016, etc.) explores two reckless and ultimately disastrous obsessions of people of a certain class and sense of entitlement: egg collecting, which gained currency during the Victorian era, and falconry, pushed to new competitive heights by Arabian princes. The author compellingly chronicles the exploits of Jeffrey Lendrumwho was arrested several times during the last two decades attempting to transport rare, endangered peregrine falcon eggs and others with intent to sell to rich Arabian clientswhom he portrays as a destructive combination of knowledgeable bird-watcher and destroyer of "the fragile, symbiotic relationship between man and the wild." Early on during his youth in Rhodesia, Lendrum's father passed along his passion of observing wildlife. As a young boy, he was enlisted to raid the nests of wild birds so that the eggshells, emptied of their yokes and dried, could be added to his father's collection. Despite the risk and illegality of the enterprise, Lendrum learned to hike and scale great heightsin Wales, Canada, and even Patagoniato attain peregrine eggs, which many members of the royalty in Dubai covet for their lucrative racing games. In this well-written, engaging detective story that underscores the continuing need for conservation of rare bird species, Hammer delineates the trials of Andy McWilliam, the retired policeman who grew admirably to serve in his capacity as officer for the National Wildlife Crime Unit, which helped prosecute Lendrum and others. Throughout, the author beautifully renders this tale "of human obsession and nature's fragility, of man's perpetual insistence on imposing his will upon the wildness of our world, and of the tiny handful of investigators, most unrecognized, working to safeguard the environment's bounty and wonder."A sleek, winning nonfiction thriller. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.