The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne

By Chris Sweeney “A biography that reads like a novel.” — The Wall Street Journal • “Laybourne was a badass.” — Los Angeles Times • “Sweeney's biography must be read to be believed.” — The Millions • “Engrossing...Riveting...This entrances.” — Publishers Weekly • NPR Books We Love 2025 • Scientific American 's Best Nonfiction of 2025 The fascinating and remarkable true story of the world's first forensic ornithologist— Roxie Laybourne, who broke down barriers for women, solved murders, and investigated deadly airplane crashes with nothing more than a microscope and a few fragments of feathers. In 1960, an Eastern Airlines flight had no sooner lifted from the runway at Boston Logan Airport when it struck a flock of birds and took a nosedive into the shallow waters of the Boston Harbor, killing sixty-two people. This was the golden age of commercial airflight—luxury in the skies—and safety was essential to the precarious future of air travel. So the FAA instructed the bird remains be sent to the Smithsonian Institution for examination, where they would land on the desk of the only person in the world equipped to make sense of it all. Her name was Roxie Laybourne, a diminutive but singular woman with thick glasses, a heavy Carolina drawl, and a passion for birds. Roxie didn't know it at the time, but that box full of dead birds marked the start of a remarkable scientific journey. She became the world's first forensic ornithologist, investigating a range of crimes and calamites on behalf of the FBI, the US Air Force, and even NASA. The Feather Detective takes readers deep within the vaunted backrooms of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History to tell the story of a burgeoning science and the enigmatic woman who pioneered it. While her male colleagues in taxidermy embarked on expeditions around the world and got plum promotions, Roxie stayed with her birds. Using nothing more than her microscope and bits of feathers, she helped prosecute murderers, kidnapper

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