Tortoises disappear from a Madagascar reserve and reappear in the Bronx Zoo. A dead iguana floats in a jar, awaiting its unveiling in a Florida court. A viper causes mayhem from Ethiopia to Virginia. In Stolen World, Jennie Erin Smith takes the reader on an unforgettable journey, a dark adventure over five decades and six continents. In 1965, Hank Molt, a young cheese salesman from Philadelphia, reinvented himself as a “specialist dealer in rare fauna,” traveling the world to collect exquisite reptiles for zoos and museums. By the end of the decade that followed, new endangered species laws had turned Molt into a convicted smuggler, and an unrepentant one, who went on to provide many of the same rare reptiles to many of the same institutions, covertly. But Molt soon found a rival in Tommy Crutchfield, a Florida carpet salesman with every intention of usurping Molt as the most accomplished reptile smuggler in the country. Like Molt, Crutchfield had modeled himself after an earlier generation of natural-history collectors celebrated for their service to science, an ideal that, for Molt and Crutchfield, eclipsed the realities of the new wildlife-protection laws. Zoo curators, caught between a desire for rare animals and the conservation-minded focus of their institutions, became the smugglers’ antagonists in court but also their best customers, sometimes simultaneously. Crutchfield forged ties with a criminally inclined Malaysian wildlife trader and emerged a millionaire, beloved by some of the finest zoos in the world. Molt, following a string of inventive but disastrous smuggling schemes in New Guinea, was reduced to hanging around Crutchfield’s Florida compound, plotting Crutchfield’s demise. The fallout from their feud would result in a major federal investigation with tentacles in Germany, Madagascar, Holland, and Malaysia. And yet even after prison, personal ruin, and the depredations of age, Molt and Crutchfield never stopped scheming, never stopped longing for the snake or lizard that would earn each his rightful place in a world that had forgotten them—or rather, had never recognized them to begin with.

Just when 12-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong in a year of bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little brother while helping her grandmother cook and do laundry for harvest workers. Illustrations.

Sir Richard Burton is best known as an explorer and translator of Arabian and Indian books, many of them sexually explicit. He was known as “Ruffian Dick” and led a life well beyond the pale of the typical Victorian. Richard Burton was a very famous actor with a brilliant voice and the looks to accompany it. Sometimes known as “Beer Burton”, he married Elizabeth Taylor twice and led a life which was often as dramatic as the characters that he played. Howard Marks became famous as a cannabis smuggler. He used the alias “Mr Nice” and adopted this as the title of a book that describes his exploits and ultimate incarceration in an American jail. Each of these men has a roguish streak to their character, but they also have a number of other things in common – one of which is that they each began their adult life at Oxford University. In fact they attended three colleges which stand, cheek by jowl on Oxford’s Broad Street: Exeter, Balliol and Trinity. Each was a master of disguise, though for rather different ends. Each was a great traveller, Howard for the drug trafficking, Richard for the film sets and Sir Richard for exploration and consular duties. They were all writers. Two of them were Welsh, two shared a name, two are dead, and all three are famous in their different ways. Finally they were all iconoclasts, mould breakers in different times and in different worlds. This book illuminates the fascinating lives of each of these interesting men, but also speculates on how they might react to each other. It recreates the Oxford that bred them, traces their subsequent lives, and then leads them back to the city so that they can meet and discourse upon: American hegemony, the freedom to consume drugs, the role of feminism and the value of education. These topics are exposed to the soaring intellectuality and conservatism of the older Burton, the articulation of the younger Burton and the liberality of Marks. The results are sometimes shocking, always interesting, and often edifying.

George Manville Fenn's 'The Lost Middy: Being the Secret of the Smugglers' Gap' is a thrilling adventure novel set in the 19th century. The book follows the journey of a young midshipman who becomes entangled in the dangerous world of smuggling along the rugged coast of Cornwall. Fenn's vivid descriptions and fast-paced narrative style transport readers back to a time of covert operations and hidden secrets, making for a captivating read that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The unique blend of maritime adventure and suspenseful mystery makes this novel a standout in Fenn's extensive body of work. Filled with plot twists and unexpected turns, 'The Lost Middy' is a literary gem that showcases Fenn's storytelling prowess and ability to weave a compelling tale that resonates with readers of all ages. George Manville Fenn's own background in the Royal Navy informed much of the authenticity and detail found in this gripping story, adding an extra layer of intrigue to the narrative. Fans of historical fiction, seafaring adventures, and tales of intrigue will find 'The Lost Middy' to be a must-read for its engaging plot, well-developed characters, and expertly crafted writing.

Five days after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, President Abraham Lincoln is mortally wounded by an assassin’s bullet. Scattered Confederate forces ignore the armistice, determined to continue the Civil War despite the Union victory. American citizens, tired of years of bloodshed, want nothing more than to rebuild a country vulnerable to corruption and criminal enterprises. Disgraced ex-Deputy U.S. Marshal Gideon Ryder has been given a second chance to serve his country—as an agent of the newly created United States Secret Service. Assigned to investigate a smuggling ring operating out of Galveston Island on the Gulf Coast of Texas, Ryder must navigate his way through the population of immigrants, sailors, former slaves, and ex-Rebels to infiltrate a gang of outlaws more deadly and dangerous than the Secret Service could have imagined… FIRST IN A NEW SERIES

The story takes us up to the present day.