Bryan Christy

A new study on exotic reptile species introduced into Florida names Strictly Reptiles….

This weekend I went to the reptile show in Hamburg, PA.  It was a “hot show”–Jameson’s mambas, red spitting cobras, eastern and western diamondback rattlesnakes, eyelash vipers, gabs, rhinos, all the wonderful venomous business you expect to be on sale in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. 

While I was signing some books at the Maryland Reptile Farm table a man looked at the cover of The Lizard King and asked me rather aggressively what side I took in the book.  It was a surprising question for an author of a crime story, but it’s completely natural to people in the reptile business.  They are so used to being slandered in the press they have little hope that light of any kind will shine well on them.  No publicity is good publicity, seems to be the mantra–which is why I’m so pleased Russ Case of Reptiles Magazine interviewed me the way he did, probing areas my fellow herpers might like to know about.   Then without telling me in advance, Reptiles’ Steph Starr interviewed the book’s main character, Mike Van Nostrand.  It was a good set up.  The articles appear in Reptiles’ February 2009 issue, but you can read the smackdown here.

Two Sundays ago, Malaysia’s NST ran two full pages on the The Lizard King.  This week, Malaysia’s largest newspaper, The Star, runs this wonderful review.  Azrina Abdullah is Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, the highly respected wildlife trade monitoring organization.

 The Star Online > Lifebookshelf Sunday September 28, 2008

Enthralling stuff

Review by AZRINA ABDULLAH

The shadowy world of illegal wildlife trading is laid bare in this non-fiction book that reads like a thriller.

 THE LIZARD KING
The True Crimes and Passions of the World’s Greatest Reptile Smugglers
By Bryan Christy
Publisher: Twelve, 256 pages
ISBN: 978-0446580953

 IT’S been compared to the illegal drugs and arms trade: experts estimate that profits from the world’s illegal trade in wildlife runs into billions of dollars. But, just like the drugs trade, illegal wildlife trading is a shadowy, little known world. (more…)