Jessica Speart

First Line: "Hey, what does your guy look like again?"

This book is the best of all possible worlds: non-fiction that is eye-opening, mind-blowing, and reads like the best fiction. It details rookie U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agent Ed Newcomer's three-year-long quest to nab Hisayoshi Kojima, the "one-man demolition derby" of butterfly collecting. The wily Japanese was an environmental nightmare, able to "acquire endangered butterflies that not even museums or university collections could show more obtain."

Perhaps it was the setting in which I chose to read this book-- outside in my back garden being able to watch butterflies floating from flower to flower-- that made it have such an impact on me. Something tells me that it was much more than that. Jessica Speart, author of a mystery series featuring U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agent Rachel Porter, is a freelance journalist specializing in wildlife enforcement issues. In her research for the book, she met and talked with Kojima several times-- almost succumbing to the man's charm herself.

She builds suspense chapter by chapter as she shares her knowledge of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the monumental obstacles it faces in an attempt to uphold the law and to protect wildlife. And if you think butterflies are unimportant bugs, think again. Smuggling them brings in millions of dollars of ill-gotten profits each year.

This is all vital information, but what really made me devour this book in one sitting is the cat-and-mouse game played by Agent Ed Newcomer and smuggler Yoshi Kojima. Speart writes with knowledge and passion and makes both men live and breathe on the page. I felt every bit as invested in the outcome as the two "players" themselves. show less

I am on the fence with this book. I have enjoyed some other true crime stories about thieves and smugglers, so the idea of this book appealed to me. It does deliver an exciting and informative account of how a US Fish and Wildlife agent outsmarted a smuggler (and butterfly killer!).

The issue that puts me on the fence then, and has kept me from saying simply that I enjoyed the book is the showy, overwrought writing style. Aside from corny and unrealistic dialogue, the writing is also overrun show more with cliches. Take the following as an example of the style found on every page: "OLE was in the process of being pulled by its bootstraps out of the Dark Ages and dragged kicking and screaming into modern times" (p. 74). Three cliches in one sentence, which I found to be all too typical of the writing.

One aspect of the story itself did put me off. At least one whole chapter is devoted entirely to the special agent's case involving pigeon club members killing hawks. Perhaps I found this particularly disturbing because seeing a hawk on my daily commute never fails to thrill me, but some details of how these animals are tortured were too graphic for me. And of course, this case has absolutely nothing to do with the butterfly smuggler, except that the same agent works it. So the author may have wanted to write more about this agent's cases, but a good deal of stylistic restraint and attempting to tell a single story would have benefited this book.

The story itself was so good at times I could barely put it down. The author tried too hard to embellish an already interesting story and it comes off as distractingly overwritten. Recommended for the story, but with a note to be aware of the ornate, wordy style. show less

Jessica Speart’s Winged Obsession offers a glimpse into the lives of an international butterfly smuggler, Yoshi Kojima, and the Fish and Wildlife undercover agent, Ed Newcomer, who catches him after three years of hard work. Interwoven in this story is Newcomer’s undercover work to catch pigeon racers who kill hawks to protect their flocks. Both of these story lines provide a shocking and sad portrayal of human disregard for the lives of protected species for profit or for sport, as well show more as the frustrating lack of resources or meaningful laws to deter these criminals. Comparisons to The Orchid Thief are inevitable, from the quirky characters, the obsession to find and collect a rare thing, and the author's presence as a character in the story.

The author is at her best when providing factual, background information on declining butterfly populations, the illegal trade of protected species, the beauty of the varied butterflies, the mania of the collectors who covet them and the dedication of the officials who try to catch the lawbreakers. She is particularly adept at describing the filth and horror inside Kojima's homes, and was able to make my skin crawl in several passages. The author is at her worst when using cliché-riddled passages to describe the interactions, dialogue or thoughts of her characters, particularly in the early stages of the book. That said, the bizarre life and actions of Kojima and the dogged pursuit of him by Newcomer, and the story itself make this a book worth reading for anyone with a love of nature and butterflies, and anyone who enjoys a suspenseful mysterious read. I finished this book with a renewed appreciation for the hardships facing endangered species and a lingering curiosity about the mysterious and deceptive Kojima. show less

Probably my favorite section of Peter Laufer's 2009 book The Dangerous World of Butterflies was on the super-smuggler Hisoyashi Kojima and Ed Newcomer, the undercover agent who finally put him in prison. Now Jessica Speart has added to the Kojima story with her own full-length book, Winged Obsession: The Pursuit of the World's Most Notorious Butterfly Smuggler (forthcoming from William Morrow).

Speart goes into much greater depth on Newcomer's pursuit of Kojima, as well as on some of the show more other undercover operations Newcomer was handling at the same time (including a fascinating investigation into the brutal killing of hawks by racing enthusiasts, which would make a book well worth reading in its own right). Supplementing her narrative with some of the evidence collected against Kojima, including saved Skype conversations, emails and other recordings, Speart's account really makes clear just how obsessed Kojima grew with Newcomer over the course of the operation, and how Newcomer was able to put that obsession to good use.

Bringing the story even more up to date, Speart traveled to Kyoto and met Kojima, hearing his "side of the story" and finding herself sized up as a possible accomplice in the continued smuggling of protected butterflies.

In the grand tradition of The Orchid Thief, this journalistic account reads like a good thriller. Speart's done her research on butterfly collecting and smuggling as well as wildlife protection efforts, and it shows. Highly recommended.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2011/02/book-review-winged-obsession.html show less