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Category Archives: True crime

The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird by Joshua Hammer

23 Monday Nov 2020

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in 20th century, nature, Non-fiction, True crime

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corrupt practices, eggs, falconry, falcons, rare birds, True crime, wild bird trade, wildlife crimes

“On May 3, 2010, an Irish national named Jeffrey Lendrum was apprehended at Britain’s 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…..” (Amazon)

“[A] well-written, engaging detective story that underscores the continuing need for conservation of rare bird species… A sleek, winning nonfiction thriller.”
— Kirkus (starred review) 

“Joshua Hammer has that rare eye for a thrilling story, and with The Falcon Thief he has found the perfect one— a tale brimming with eccentric characters, obsession, deception, and beauty. It has the grip of a novel, with the benefit of being all true.”
— David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost Citz of Z

“Middle Eastern Sheiks. 180 mph apex predators. An agile and fearless, globe-trotting obsessive dangling beneath helicopters and slipping through borders from Patagonia to the high Arctic. The Falcon Thief is more than just a ripping page turner; it is a cautionary tale about what happens when our most precious wildlife becomes status symbol in our diminishing natural world.”— Carl Hoffman, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Wild Men of Borneo and Savage Harvest

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Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

28 Tuesday May 2019

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in murder, Non-fiction, True crime

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abduction, history, Irish Republican Army, murder, Northern Ireland, True crime

In 1972 Belfast, a woman named Jean McConville was taken from her home and never seen again, leaving behind her ten children; her body was eventually found in 2003. Journalist Patrick Radden Keefe uses this incident to highlight the larger story of Northern Ireland during the Troubles, focusing on figures like the Price sisters, Gerry Adams, and more. There is a local connection too, as Boston College became involved in the McConville murder investigation. This is a gripping work of nonfiction.

“[Keefe] incorporates a real-life whodunit into a moving, accessible account of the violence that has afflicted Northern Ireland… Tinged with immense sadness, this work never loses sight of the humanity of even those who committed horrible acts in support of what they believed in.”
—Publishers Weekly
, *starred review*

“If it seems as if I’m reviewing a novel, it is because Say Nothing has lots of the qualities of good fiction, to the extent that I’m worried I’ll give too much away, and I’ll also forget that Jean McConville was a real person, as were–are–her children. And her abductors and killers. Keefe is a terrific storyteller. . .He brings his characters to real life. The book is cleverly structured. We follow people–victim, perpetrator, back to victim–leave them, forget about them, rejoin them decades later. It can be read as a detective story. . .What Keefe captures best, though, is the tragedy, the damage and waste, and the idea of moral injury. . .Say Nothing is an excellent account of the Troubles. —RODDY DOYLE, The New York Times Book Review

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The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson

18 Friday May 2018

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in 20th century, crimes against, England, Non-fiction, True crime

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fly tying, Great Britain, London, Natural History Museums, theft from museums, True crime, zoological specimens

I stopped reading another great book when I read the review of this book. Within pages I was hooked!  A captivating true crime story of an unlikely thief (a 20 year old, American concert flute player) and his even more unlikely crime (breaking into the Tring Museum –home to the largest and oldest ornithological collections in the world)  in 2010 in London.  The author is relentless in his pursuit of the facts, the thief(s), and the appalling greed for our natural treasures.  I can’t stop thinking about it. Put this title on hold at the library!

“This extraordinary book exposes an international underground that traffics in rare and precious natural resources, yet was previously unknown to all but a few. A page-turning read you won’t soon forget, The Feather Thief tells us as much about our cultural priorities as it does about the crimes themselves. There’s never been anything like it.”  —Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs

“A fascinating book . . . the kind of intelligent reported account that alerts us to a threat and that, one hopes, will never itself be endangered.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Captivating…Everything the author touches in this thoroughly engaging true-crime tale turns to storytelling gold. . . . Johnson’s flair for telling an engrossing story is, like the beautiful birds he describes, exquisite. . . . A superb tale about obsession, nature, and man’s ‘unrelenting desire to lay claim to its beauty, whatever the cost.’”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

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Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

12 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Non-fiction, True crime

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20th century, case studies, crimes against, Federal Bureau of Investigation, homicide investigation, murder, Oklahoma, Osage Indians, True crime, United States

This engaging work of nonfiction is a twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history that took place in 1920s Oklahoma, targeting the wealthy Osage community.   His previous book is The Lost City of Z: a Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.

“A master of the detective form…Killers is something rather deep and not easily forgotten.”—Wall St. Journal

 “A marvel of detective-like research and narrative verve.”—Financial Times 

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