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

This was a fun read, a dreadfully sad read in parts, an odd manifestation of human greed and dominance over creatures that have beauty and elegance. The main character was complex and talented in lots of different ways. Worth the reading time.

The pacing of the story was great and made a story about something that would ordinarily be very boring for me (the art of Victorian fly tying) and made it absolutely riveting. The history behind it all really set the narrative up well and it left me ranting to my friends and family about it for days.

A virtuoso flutist steals historical bird pelts from a branch of the British Museum. Some years later, an avid salmon fisherman in the U.S. hears about the theft. Thus begins his determined obsession to get to the bottom of the crime. Interwoven in the crime story is the 100+ -year history of how western culture coveted rare feathers and how those rare feathers are used in an inner circle of men who tie historically accurate salmon fishing flies. I am not a fishing enthusiast of any sort, but the story is fascinating and I couldn't put it down.