A rollicking true-crime adventure about a rogue who trades in rare birds and their eggsâand the wildlife detective determined to stop him.
On May 3, 2010, an Irish national named Jeffrey Lendrum was apprehended at Britainâs Birmingham International Airport with a suspicious parcel strapped to his stomach. Inside were fourteen rare peregrine falcon eggs snatched from a remote cliffside in Wales.
So begins a tale almost too bizarre to believe, following the parallel lives of a globe-trotting smuggler who spent two decades capturing endangered raptors worth millions of dollars as race championsâand Detective Andy McWilliam of the United Kingdomâs National Wildlife Crime Unit, whoâs hell bent on protecting the worldâs birds of prey.
The Falcon Thief whisks readers from the volcanoes of Patagonia to Zimbabweâs Matobo National Park, and from the frigid tundra near the Arctic Circle to luxurious aviaries in the deserts of Dubai, all in pursuit of a man who is reckless, arrogant, and gripped by a destructive compulsion to make the most beautiful creatures in nature his own. Itâs a story thatâs part true-crime narrative, part epic adventureâand wholly unputdownable until the very last page.