The Lizard King: The True Crimes and Passions of the World's Greatest Reptile Smugglers - Hardcover

Christy, Bryan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446580953 ISBN 13: 9780446580953

Publisher: Twelve, 2008

Synopsis

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, he was bitten between the eyes by a blood python, chased by a mother alligator, and sprayed by a bird-eating tarantula. But perhaps more dangerous was coming face to face with Michael J. Van Nostrand, owner of Strictly Reptiles, a thriving family business in Hollywood, Florida. Van Nostrand imports as many as 300,000 iguanas each year (over half the total of America's most popular imported reptile), as well as hundreds of thousands of snakes, lizards, frogs, spiders, and scorpions.

Van Nostrand was suspected of being a reptile smuggler by Special Agent Chip Bepler of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who devoted years of his life in an obsessive quest to expose The Lizard King's cold-blooded crimes. How this cat-and-mouse game ended is engrossing and surprising.

About this title

Review:

Bryan Christy has fulfilled his contract as a writer on all counts in this impassioned, noirish, funny, ruthlessly researched masterpiece (Alexandra Fuller, author)

Book Description:

Imagine The Sopranos, with snakes! A fascinating account of a family business with a history of smuggling reptiles, and the federal agent who was driven to taking them down

About this edition

• Publisher: Twelve
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0446580953
• ISBN 13: 9780446580953
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256