The Lizard King
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The inspiration for the HBO docuseries Monsters of God, a “riveting story of money and greed” from Tiger King filmmaker Eric Goode (Financial Times).
When Bryan Christy began to investigate the world of reptile smuggling, he had no idea what he would be in for. In the course of his research,...
Published By Twelve
Format Paperback
Number Of Pages 256
Publication Date 08/05/2009
ISBN 9780446699754
Dimensions 5.2 inches x 7.95 inches
"Riveting... [The Lizard King] captures in vibrant prose the dynamic personalities and habits of its human and reptilian subjects.—Kirkus
"Who knew the world of reptile smuggling was so poisonous? ... Set in the mid-1990s, [The Lizard King] is reminiscent of the film version of Frank W. Abagnale's Catch Me if You Can: the determined lawman, the flamboyant scofflaw, the eventual showdown. Christy takes us deep inside the world of the smuggler... An exciting story of smugglers, lawmen, corrupt government officials, organized crime, and slithery beasts."—David Pitt, Booklist
"Bryan Christy has fulfilled his contract as a writer on all counts; in this impassioned, noirish, funny, ruthlessly-researched masterpeice he has, with a poet's soul, given voice to the voiceless, shown us a world we could not otherwise explore on our own and born witness to the careless mentality of our collecting, consuming culture. This is The Orchid Thief, with fangs."—Alexandra Fuller, author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
Who knew the world of reptile smuggling was as high stakes and character rich as an Elmore Leonard novel? Christy dives headlong into this subterranean world where a white python can fetch $100,000 and illegally smuggled frogs and frilled dragons are sold to pet shops and zoos. The tactics of reptile smugglers recall those of drug criminals-falsifying documents, laundering funds. This global operation centers on some of the notorious men of the Van Nostrand family. Though they're no less fearsome than the Corleones, Christy resists demonizing them. Instead, he emphasizes our enduring fascination with the cold-blooded. FOUR BUNNIES!"—Playboy
"THE LIZARD KING is a wild, woolly, finny, feathery and scaly account of animal smuggling on a grand scale, in a weird world so expansive that a few hundred stray snakes and turtles amount to peanuts.. . . Mr. Christy's entertaining book is about the crooks, swashbucklers and drug kingpins who constitute the underbelly of the reptile-dealing world . . . [The Lizard King] has a tangle of smugglers, agents, breeders and highly colorful minor players (like the tiger-purchasing Miami gangster who sounds like the prototype for "Scarface") with stories to tell . . . By the time THE LIZARD KING has escalated to describing the bear-gallbladder trade, it is rich with memorable moments."—Janet Maslin, New York Times