{"product_id":"the-feather-thief-beauty-obsession-and-the-natural-history-heist-of-the-century","title":"The Feather Thief: Beauty  Obsession  and the Natural History Heist of the Century","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs heard on NPRs This American Life  Absorbing . . . Though its non-fiction  The Feather Thief contains many of the elements of a classic thriller. Maureen Corrigan  NPRs Fresh Air  One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever. Christian Science Monitor  A rollicking true-crime adventure and a captivating journey into an underground world of fanatical fly-tiers and plume peddlers  for readers of The Stranger in the Woods  The Lost City of Z  and The Orchid Thief.  On a cool June evening in 2009  after performing a concert at Londons Royal Academy of Music  twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world  the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwins obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum  the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skinssome collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwins  Alfred Russel Wallace  whod risked everything to gather themand escaped into the darkness.  Two years later  Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers  Johnson was catapulted into a years-long  worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime  and one mans relentless pursuit of justice  The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession  and mans destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44984007557173,"sku":"ByrdShop_110198161X","price":31.18,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781101981610.jpg?v=1770818582","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-feather-thief-beauty-obsession-and-the-natural-history-heist-of-the-century","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}