Mysteries steeped in academia tend to pop up with regularity these days, especially those with two distinct narrative threads – one set in the past, one set in the present, respectively about a historical figure and the academic struggling to solve a riddle that surrounds him. The last one I read was John Darnton’s THE DARWIN CONSPIRACY. The latest I’ve read is Martin Davies’ THE CONJURER’S BIRD. It reminded me a lot of DARWIN, including the aspect deemed most important: its quality.
In CONJURER’S, the historical figure doesn’t share Darwin’s household-name status; it’s Joseph Banks, the 18th-century naturalist made famous on scientific expeditions under Capt. James Cook. During one such seafaring adventure, he was thought to have discovered a single specimen of a unique species of bird that no one had seen before or has seen since. Fast-forward to the present time, when a lonely London bird expert named Fitzgerald is approached by a wealthy man who offers good money for that bird to be found. But how do you find a bird that’s been missing for almost 250 years?
Davies alternates the story of Banks’ travels and his romancing of a strange young woman with that of Fitzgerald and his race – alongside Swedish college student Katya – to locate the bird before someone else does. It’s a plot not easily explained, but easy to read. CONJURER’S follows the detective novel format, and while crimes are commited and danger is afoot, lives aren’t necessarily at stake. Nevertheless, the plot is no less suspenseful or scandalous for it. You’ll want to discover the whereabouts of that damned bird just as much as everyone in the book. This excellent novel is one of those more literary-minded efforts that doesn’t know how smart it is, making for an unpretentious trip. –Rod Lott
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This comment was posted to a birding listserv I belong to:
“Another book some might want to try is “The Conjurers Bird” by Martin Davies. It is fiction so there is some mystery and romance mixed in but is basically about the search for the Mysterious Bird of Ulieta which was only seen once, on Captain Cook’s voyage in 1774. There is some interesting background about the naturalists of that time and how they worked.”