Martin Davies The Conjurer’s Bird

The Conjurer's Bird

Martin Davies

Crown, Jan 2006, $24.00

ISBN: 1400097339

In 1774, during Captain Cook's second expedition in the South Pacific, the crew captures the thrush-like Mysterious Bird of Ulieta. Cook presents the unique specimen, only one of its kind ever seen, to his highly renowned friend, naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, who was on the first trek. Stuffed and given a place of honor as the rarest creature in Joseph's collection, the bird ultimately vanishes at the same time his lover Mary Burnett, who disguised as a man sailed on the second trek, disappeared.

Over two centuries later, wealthy collector Karl Anderson and his lover Gabriella persuade her ex, British conservationist John "Fitz" Fitzgerald, to search for the Mysterious Bird of Ulieta. Though he has not heard her voice in fourteen years and wants nothing to do with a search, he catalogues with extinct species, the enthusiasm of his lodger Katya convinces him to agree. While Karl wants to add the bird's DNA to the Ark Gene project; American Emeric Potts searches for the valuable paintings that were reportedly encased with the lost bird.

The two subplots rotate with the historical storyline containing more energy, perhaps because it is straightforward with fewer twists than the modern spin. Still the duality comes together nicely so that the audience receives a deep late eighteenth century slant inside a solid twentieth century thriller. Adding to the suspense is that the key casts in both eras seem genuine, with many of the Cook crowd coming from real life. Martin Davies conjurers up the best bird investigation since the Maltese Falcon flew the coop.