Review: THE FEATHER THIEF: the Natural History Heist of the Century, Kirk Wallace Johnson

• 
  This edition made available as an e-book by my local library through Libby
  
• Published: 4th June 2019. Random House UK
  
• ISBN: 9780099510666
• 320 pages

Synopsis (publisher) 

A page-turning story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man’s relentless quest for justice.

One summer evening in 2009, twenty-year-old musical prodigy Edwin Rist broke into the Natural History Museum at Tring, home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world. Once inside, Rist grabbed as many rare bird specimens as he was able to carry before escaping into the darkness.

Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist-deep in a river in New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide first told him about the heist. But what would possess a person to steal dead birds? And had Rist paid for his crime? In search of answers, Johnson embarked upon a worldwide investigation, leading him into the fiercely secretive underground community obsessed with the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying.

Was Edwin Rist a genius or narcissist? Mastermind or pawn? 

My Take

A fascinating story right outside my usual genre, although a crime is committed, and there is a mystery perhaps still unsolved.

The first section of the book gives the reader the background to founding of the Natural History Museum at Tring, originally founded by Lord Rothschild, to house an incredible ornithological collection. The man who collected the birds that formed the basis of the collection played a role in formulating the science of evolution. At the same time as he and others were collecting rare and beautiful birds, feathers became a mark of wealth in fashion, particularly on hats.

But in a bizarre twist they became much sought after by Fly-Tiers, and this is where Edwin Rist, musical prodigy and fly-tier afficionado comes into the story.

When the author learns of the Tring Heist, in which Rist stole 299 bird carcases, he has a strong feeling that justice has not been served, and the book is his account of trying to sort the wood from the trees.

My rating: 4.6

About the Author

Kirk Wallace Johnson served in Iraq with the US Agency for International Development in Baghdad and Fallujah as the Agency’s first co-ordinator for reconstruction in the war-torn city. He went on to found The List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies. His work on behalf of Iraqi refugees was profiled by This American Life, 60 Minutes, the Today Show, the subject of a feature-length documentary, The List, and a memoir, To Be a Friend is Fatal.

A Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, and the recipient of fellowships from the American Academy in Berlin, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the Wurlitzer Foundation, his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times and the Washington Post . He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, son and daughter.