John Fitz, a scholar of extinct birds, searches for the stuffed remains of the lost bird of Ulieta. With the help of his student boarder Katya and some mysterious clues left by other rival treasure hunters, he scours Britain's archives for records of the lost specimen, last scene in the hands of the naturalist Joseph Banks. The author Martin Davies weaves this present-day search for the bird with the love story surrounding Joseph Banks as well as with Fitz's reminsces about his grandfather's search for a different bird.

Lovers of sleepy mysteries a la Agatha Christie or folks who like obscure science facts.

As I used to be an ornithology buff, I did enjoy the science that this book was based on. I wish there had been more of it. The love story between Joseph Banks and the mysterious Miss Brown was beautiful, to the point that it overshadowed the main quest for the bird.

The relationships between Fitz and Katya, Fitz and Gabby, Gabby and Anderson - it was all TMI (too much information) in my opinion. I didn't really care about any of these characters. On top of that, there was far far too much time spent reading about characters doing research. No one wants to read three pages of narration about how so-and-so goes to the library and looks at books. SNORE! And even outside of libraries, far too much narration - as a writer would say "show it, don't tell it!"

Read a more scientific account of the bird of Ulieta.

Often I was bored, which was a shame as I thought it was a great idea for a story.

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Created Oct 14, 2008 at 7:52pm • Submit your own review...