The Lizard King - by Bryan Christy (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The inspiration for the HBO docuseries Monsters of God, a "riveting story of money and greed" from Tiger King filmmaker Eric Goode (Financial Times).

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.

Praise for Monsters of God

"A rich, strange, largely unknown world usually makes for a compelling documentary series and film-maker Eric 'Tiger King'Goode's deep dive into exotic animal smuggling is no exception."--The Guardian

"Mr. Goode extracts remarkably candid admissions from his interview subjects..."--The Wall Street Journal

Praise for The Lizard King

"A wild, woolly, finny, feathery and scaly account of animal smuggling on a grand scale."--The New York Times Book Review

"A phenomenally good read!"--National Geographic

"High-stakes ... creepily compelling ... a book so complicitly illicit that it could only take place right here in our own backyard."--Miami Sun Post

"This riveting volume...captures in vibrant prose the dynamic personalities and habits of its human and reptilian subjects."--Kirkus

Review Quotes

"THE LIZARD KING is a wild, woolly, finny, feathery and scaly account of animal smuggling on a grand scale, in a weird world so expansive that a few hundred stray snakes and turtles amount to peanuts.. . . Mr. Christy's entertaining book is about the crooks, swashbucklers and drug kingpins who constitute the underbelly of the reptile-dealing world . . . [The Lizard King] has a tangle of smugglers, agents, breeders and highly colorful minor players (like the tiger-purchasing Miami gangster who sounds like the prototype for "Scarface") with stories to tell . . . By the time THE LIZARD KING has escalated to describing the bear-gallbladder trade, it is rich with memorable moments."--Janet Maslin, New York Times

"Bryan Christy has fulfilled his contract as a writer on all counts; in this impassioned, noirish, funny, ruthlessly-researched masterpeice he has, with a poet's soul, given voice to the voiceless, shown us a world we could not otherwise explore on our own and born witness to the careless mentality of our collecting, consuming culture. This is The Orchid Thief, with fangs."--Alexandra Fuller, author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

"Riveting... [The Lizard King] captures in vibrant prose the dynamic personalities and habits of its human and reptilian subjects.--Kirkus

"Who knew the world of reptile smuggling was so poisonous? ... Set in the mid-1990s, [The Lizard King] is reminiscent of the film version of Frank W. Abagnale's Catch Me if You Can: the determined lawman, the flamboyant scofflaw, the eventual showdown. Christy takes us deep inside the world of the smuggler... An exciting story of smugglers, lawmen, corrupt government officials, organized crime, and slithery beasts."--David Pitt, Booklist

Who knew the world of reptile smuggling was as high stakes and character rich as an Elmore Leonard novel? Christy dives headlong into this subterranean world where a white python can fetch $100,000 and illegally smuggled frogs and frilled dragons are sold to pet shops and zoos. The tactics of reptile smugglers recall those of drug criminals-falsifying documents, laundering funds. This global operation centers on some of the notorious men of the Van Nostrand family. Though they're no less fearsome than the Corleones, Christy resists demonizing them. Instead, he emphasizes our enduring fascination with the cold-blooded. FOUR BUNNIES!"--Playboy

About the Author

Bryan Christy has had a life-long fascination with reptiles and an even greater fascination with the men responsible for smuggling them to the U.S. He graduated from University of Michigan Law School, took a Fulbright Scholarship to University of Tokyo Law School, worked for Senator Bradley, and later in the Executive Office of the President. In 1999, he was asked to become the country's first post-Vietnam War resident legal adviser to the government of Vietnam but turned it down to write. This is his first book.