Kenneth C. Mann: The book was in great condition and arrived quickly.
United States on Jan 28, 2024
Amazon Customer: A fascinating, addicting story. An excellent read
Japan on Jan 11, 2024
James: Excellent book! The story had me turning pages right until the end.
I love that there are no clear antagonists or protagonists in this book
Canada on Oct 30, 2023
Eric Lee Smith: “The Feather Thief” is a good book, well written, could have been great if only the facts had cooperated. This is a whodunit where the who is discovered after 125 pages or so, then the next 200 are a whydunit, and we don’t care all that much.
The author was active in first solving the crime and then in tracking down the thieves. He was much more involved than Truman Capote was in “In Cold Blood.” Capote though got his story, his narrative ended in hangings for the criminals, and thus his patience was rewarded. This author has much less luck with the story, it just won’t end cleanly and dramatically.
Both books move along briskly and use novel techniques to tell a non-fiction story. The settings and characters for both are unusual and compelling. Both authors get wrapped up in both their stories and the fate of their villans. Also for our feather criminals, they fail to deliver dramatic falls for themselves, leaving only a dramatic fail in their wake.
I give it four stars, could have been three, but I enjoyed the way the author told the first half of the story, had that continued it would have been five.
United States on May 01, 2022
Amazon Customer: Loved this book . It was so interesting and based on a true story that was truly amazing . You will learn a lot from this fascinating story . Highly recommend
Australia on Apr 16, 2021
Nancy Adair: This was our book club pick. I enjoyed reading this book and found much of it interesting. I am not into fishing or fly tying, but that's not the point of the book. What is fascinating is the obsessive aspect of fly tying and its roots in a crazy but popular 19th c writer who insisted that rare and beautiful birds needed to be harvested to create perfect flys to attract specific fish in specific streams.
The book also talks about the obsession for birds and feathers in 19th c fashion, and how millions of birds were killed for the sake of its feathers.
One reader was emotionally upset by the book's description of the killing of birds. Most of our book club readers did not finish the book or were disappointed by the ending. Some parts interested others. It was the lack of an ending that gave closure that most disappointed the readers. Even if the 'mystery' was not solved, the 'truth' revealed, they wanted the author to offer something to wrap the story up. Two of us did like the book.
This book is about obsession and the crazy things we become obsessed with. The obsession of a 19th c naturalist to collect rare birds. The obsession of a man who stole the rare...
United States on Jan 17, 2020
Suren kimidi: The hidden world of fly-tying is disclosed.
Interesting right from the start.
Author takes you to a tour of all the exotic birds in the world.
India on May 26, 2019
suzy hallock-bannigan: I suspect it is no accident that Kirk Wallace Johnson has written this remarkable book which centers of the work of yet another Wallace—-A.R. Wallace stayed in the Malay Archipelago methodically capturing, separating, bagging and bottling specimens—-even all 39 birds of Paradise. He had plenty of time to think when he was wrapped in a blanket in 90 degree heat seating with malaria: what causes species to differentiate? Why do some endure and others do not? Deciding that with every generation change, inferior species would die off and superior ones would emerge with strength, Wallace should be remembered at least on an equal par with Charles Darwin. Perhaps the only difference is that Darwin was in London and had access to the press and Wallace did not. They did communicate by letter, but it was Wallace who bagged and boxed 310 mammals, 100, reptiles, 7,500 shells, 13,100 moths and butterflies, 83,200 beetles, and 13,400 other insects. But the greatest highlight of all his collection was for him the 8,050 birds he captured and shipped to his London agent. And while he was doing al that (over a period of about 8 years), in 1868 Walter Rothschild was born into a family credited...
United States on Dec 17, 2018
Dr. R. G. Henderson: This is an unusual but fascinating book and a great read. Two obsessives are involved - the thief of the title and the author. It tells the story of Edwin Rist, a talented flautist and student at the Royal Academy of Music. But Rist was also an obsessive (and very good) fishing fly tier. We are introduced to an extraordinary underworld of the fly tying community as well as tangential background about 19th century pioneers who collected tropical bird skins and the Victorian fascination with exotic bird feathers for fashion (largely hats). Classic trout and salmon flies require feathers - particularly exotic tropical bird feathers. Such feathers command high prices on eBay and fly tying forums, although many of these belong to protected species and cannot legally be traded.
In Tring (of all places) there is the ornithological collection of the Natural History Museum. Rist by subterfuge arranged a visit there and then planned a daring crime. After a concert he gathered together his tools - latex gloves, glass cutter (purchased from Amazon) etc and got the train from Euston to Tring. He climbed a wall, smashed a window and found himself in Aladdin’s cave. He managed to get a...
United Kingdom on May 08, 2018
United States on Feb 17, 2024