The structure and style of this book draws you in since the very beginning, and it’s composed of so many well-told story plots that you just can’t put it down!
Who knew fly-tying was so dark?!
This book has it all, it is not only the true story of the heist itself, but the author gives such a profound background and introduction into the fly-tying world for even people outside of that world (outsiders like myself) to understand how passionate and significant it can be for its members. Together with the story of how some conservation movements were born, ridiculous and obsessive Victorian fashion, and the scientific significance of centuries-old museum collections, this book prepares the reader very well for the emotional rollercoaster that the heist itself was and, later on, the author’s journey to solve the mysteries that were not initially solved by the authorities.
As a biologist, I was a bit surprised (and embarrassed) that I had never heard about this heist before! I guess most scientists (myself included) would probably take the obvious “side” of this story: the Museum’s side and the importance of the preservation of biological reference collections. However, the author makes each character’s personal story so vivid and compelling that it’s very easy to empathize even with “the bad guys”. At times it even made me perceive this heist as somewhat pathetic. It also makes you think about what “the bad” means in this situation and how justice was (or wasn’t) served.
A true-crime story with historical and ornithological lessons, insights into conservation and the interesting crazy-obsessive world of fly-tiers. One of the most captivating books I’ve read in the last years.
Spoilers ahead:
I find it interesting how the fly-tying community express their indignation about this case and how it “dirties up” their name, and how respectful they vocally are of international regulations on wildlife trade and museum collections. It makes me wonder how true to this they really are. Would they behave the same way if it wasn’t penalized by law? Is it respect for wildlife and science or just to the law and its consequences?
And what about Edwin Rist not feeling like he did something bad because “the birds are just lying there in museums” and “there’s no use for them anymore”? “We already know what we can know about them”. Well, that’s not true, but I totally understand that people don’t know that. Unfortunately.
So many new discoveries have been made when a scientist somewhere thinks “hey, I wonder if anyone has looked into this?” and thanks to museum collections a new fresh view of what has been there for centuries points us towards new wonders. Perhaps I’ll write a blog post on these examples later… What do you think? How do we communicate the importance of Natural History Collections better? And…do you think seomeone will ever return the still-missing birds?
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