The Scent of Scandal - (Florida History and Culture) by Craig Pittman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

2012 Florida Book Awards, Silver Medal for Florida Non-Fiction

"FANTASTIC. If I did not know most of the main players I would have thought the author had a vivid and twisted imagination."--Paul Martin Brown, author of Wild Orchids of Florida

"A fascinating true story of obsession, greed, and lust for the unobtainable. Reminds me a great deal of The Maltese Falcon. This rare flower is definitely the stuff that dreams are made of."--Ace Atkins, author of Devil's Garden and Infamous

"Pittman has captured the extreme competition, unique characters, and general insanity that often typify the orchid world. The Scent of Scandal exemplifies how passion and profit can overrule common sense and the law."--Scott Steward, former associate editor, North American Native Orchid Journal

After its Peruvian discovery in 2002, Phragmipedium kovachii became the rarest and most sought-after orchid in the world. Prices soared to $10,000 on the black market. Then one showed up at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, where every year more than 100,000 people visit. They come for the lush landscape on Sarasota Bay and for Selby's vast orchid collection, one of the most magnificent in the world.

The collision between Selby's scientists and the smugglers of Phrag. Kovachii, a rare ladyslipper orchid hailed as the most significant and beautiful new species discovered in a century, led to search warrants, a grand jury investigation, and criminal charges. It made headlines around the country, cost the gardens hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, and led to tremendous internal turmoil.

Investigative journalist Craig Pittman unravels this tangled web to shine a spotlight on flaws in the international treaties governing trade in endangered wildlife--which may protect individual plants and animals in shipping but do little to halt the destruction of whole colonies in the wild.

The Scent of Scandal unspools like a riveting mystery novel, stranger than anything in Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief or the film Adaptation. Pittman shows how some people can become so obsessed--with beauty, with profit, with fame--that they will ignore everything, even the law.

Review Quotes

"[An] engaging saga of orchidophiles."--Minneapolis Star-Tribune


"A page turner--with real people, real emotions, good intentions, devious actions, careless decisions, and a very beautiful plant."--Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas


"A story with as many twists and turns as Hammett's 'Maltese Falcon, ' and just about the same amount of greed, jealousy, backstabbing and subterfuge."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution


"An in-depth portrait of a weird, sometimes dangerous mania."--Tampa Bay Times


"Fascinating...one of the most entertaining orchid books to come along in years."--Richmond Times-Dispatch


"Incredible reading.... Fuse[s] investigative reporting and true-crime writing to create the pace and tension of a great detective novel."--Sarasota Herald-Tribune


"Reading this book is like watching a car wreck in slow-motion: you know what's going to happen but you can't look away...the book focuses on what happens when greed, betrayal and obsession collide with national and international laws designed to protect natural resources from over-exploitation."--The Guardian (UK)


"Takes readers on a wild globetrotting trek... Pittman introduces a large cast of eccentric, flower-crazed characters who have seemingly stepped out of an 'Indiana Jones' flick, hunting the Holy Grail of orchids."--South Florida Sun-Sentinel

About the Author

Craig Pittman is an award-winning journalist who writes about environmental issues for Florida's largest newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times. He is the coauthor of Paving Paradise and author of Manatee Insanity.