The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

If you love too-weird-to-be-true stories or stumbling upon a new-to-you topic you had no idea could be so fascinating, this is the book for you. Author Kirk Wallace Johnson was fly-fishing in New Mexico when he first heard the strange story of Edward Rist, the thief who stole hundreds of bird skins from the British Museum of Natural History: he brazenly walked into the museum with a suitcase and walked out with a collection of valuable and exotic specimens. Though the police knew Rist was selling his stolen treasure online, many of the precious specimens went missing—and Johnson was determined to discover where they went. Motivated by natural curiosity, a regard for science, and a sense of justice, he became an amateur detective-of-sorts and shares his experiences in this engaging narrative.