Martin Davies' latest book is a literate tale of personal intrigue and all-too-human mystery, inspired by a litttle-known historical footnote. In 1774, Captain Cook made his second expedition to the South Pacific. The ship's naturalist collected a number of specimens of local flora and fauna, including native birds. Among them was a single thrushlike bird immortalized in a sketch by the naturalist's son.
Upon the ship's return to England, the actual specimen was presented to Sir Joseph Banks, an eminent and respected naturalist who was originally to have traveled with Cook but ultimately refused to partake in the voyage due to disagreements with the captain. Only years later did others realize that the bird was the only specimen of its kind ever found - no one has ever located another example of the "Mysterious Bird of Ulieta," leading to the belief that the one found during Cook's voyage may well have been of a species on the brink of extinction.
Unfortunately, no one has been able to examine the specimen itself, because it disappeared from Banks' collection sometime during his lifetime - and has never been seen since. In this novel, Davies attempts to decipher the mystery of the bird's disappearance. Its chapters alternate between the present day investigation of a London conservationist researching the bird and the 18th century romance between Banks and the only woman he would truly love.
The contemporary track of the story features Fitz, one of those tired men who once had dreams but surrendered them; his visions of glory reside in a dusty corner of his workroom. He teaches a few classes, drinks too much, and works on a few specimens, but little else. Then one day he is invited to have a drink with the woman he once loved and her current beau, a fellow who is hot on the trail of the mysterious bird for a Canadian man attempting to catalog the genetic composition of various lost species of creatures. Initially, Fitz is uninterested. But the puzzle nags at him - even more so when he returns home to find that someone broke into his home. At the urging of the young graduate student who rents an upstairs flat, Fitz embarks upon an ambitious undertaking: to find the bird that vanished from Banks' collection some two hundred years ago.
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