Joshua Hammer, the author of our topic today, The Falcon Thief, has traveled the globe as a foreign journalist for Newsweek and is now a freelance writer living in Berlin. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Bad Ass Librarians of Timbuktu . He has also written for many publications that include the New York Times, Smithsonian, Outside, GQ and the New Yorker to name just a few!!
The Falcon Thief uncovers the world of oology- egg collecting. He introduces us to an obsessed wild bird egg thief and smuggler, Jeffery Lendrum. The adventures of this thief are balanced with The Wildlife Crime Unit's detective, Andy McWilliams who is determined to stop Lendrum's egg thief activities.
I thought this a gripping adventure of these two men. It exposed me to a world I did not know existed and feel the world should know about this. Peregrine's and birds in general are facing great threats already at the hands of humans, they don't need the challenge of egg thieves stealing their eggs for collections that sit in storage areas. They certainly don't need their eggs or babies stolen for entertainment such as falcon races or songbird competitions.
I thought there was a nice balance of adventure and facts in this book. The facts are needed to understand this world better.
*Photos below were provided by author. Captions in order shown below:
Book cover of The Falcon Thief
Author Joshua Hammer in Wales retracing Lendrum's egg stealing steps
Jeffery Lendrum meeting author in Pretoria
Wildlife Crime Unit's, Andy McWilliams on right and colleague on left
Next two photos from falcon races in Abu Dhabi
A view of the type of terrain Lendrum traversed to steal wild bird eggs.
Audio of my FaceBook Live interview with Joshua Hammer! Just press the play button below to listen!
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