The Feather Thief

Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

308 pages

English language

Published Jan. 18, 2018

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4 stars (13 reviews)

On a cool June evening in 2009, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist grabbed hundreds of bird skins - some collected 150 years earlier - and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? This is the gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice.

6 editions

Interesting, but meh at the same time.

3 stars

I appreciated the history of why birds were hunted to the point of extinction for their feathers and how the laws that are in place to protect them now were put into action. I also now know a lot more than I thought I would ever need to know about fly-tying. The overall drive to have the genuine feathers as a status symbol in the community was insane. I wanted to shake a whole bunch of people in this book.

I felt like the "true crime" aspect of this book really dragged it down a bit, though. There was never some major "aha!" moments or anything and was just a weird obsession for the author (who was into fly fishing) wanting to understand why a major fly-tier stole a bunch of birds from the museum and then taking it upon himself to try to find the missing birds after the …

Review of 'The Feather Thief' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Highly recommended!
This combination of true crime, memoir, and natural science history. Beautifully told and un-put-downable. I rushed through the audio book in only two sittings, not being able to pause the story.

I'm still low-key angry at Edwin, the loss for the scientific community, and the arrogance of the fly-tieing community.

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3 stars
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4 stars
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Subjects

  • NATURE / Animals / Birds
  • BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Museum Administration & Museology
  • Theft from museums
  • Natural history museums
  • Natural History Museum (London, England)
  • Zoological specimens
  • TRUE CRIME / General
  • Fly tying