For me, the major criminal forces are far larger. What strategies did he use to track down criminals? What mistakes did he make? Why were his stories so effective at generating change? And why has he now chosen to use his journalistic crime-fighting experience as the basis for his debut novel, In the Company of Killers, a thriller about the major criminal forces connected to wildlife exploitation? Bryan discusses with Eve and Julie all this and more in this week’s episode of Book Dreams.īryan: The first scene of the book is a poaching operation, but to me, the book has nothing to do with elephant poaching other than that first setup. Each episode explores book-related topics you can’t stop thinking about-whether you know it yet or not.īryan Christy’s investigations as a reporter have led to police raids of ivory shops in Vatican City, the defrocking of a pedophile monsignor, the arrest and imprisonment of the “Pablo Escobar of wildlife trafficking,” and the closing of China’s ivory market.

Co-hosted by Julie Sternberg and Eve Yohalem, Book Dreams releases new episodes every Thursday. How this cat-and-mouse game ended is engrossing and surprising.Book Dreams is a podcast for everyone who loves books and misses English class. Fish and Wildlife Service, who devoted years of his life in an obsessive quest to expose The Lizard King's cold-blooded crimes. Van Nostrand was suspected of being a reptile smuggler by Special Agent Chip Bepler of the U.S. 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, owner of Strictly Reptiles, a thriving family business in Hollywood, Florida.

But perhaps more dangerous was coming face to face with Michael J. 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. When Bryan Christy began to investigate the world of reptile smuggling, he had no idea what he would be in for. Imagine The Sopranos, with snakes! The Lizard King is a fascinating account of a father and son family business suspected of smuggling reptiles, and the federal agent who tried to take them down.

The Lizard King by Bryan Christy