Glen Chilton, the author of the rollicking Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour finalist The Curse of the Labrador Duck, returns with yet another quest, this time to seek out species ill-advisedly introduced into foreign environments. Chilton visits Ireland to witness how rhododendrons, an ornamental plant that escaped a private garden, now threaten to choke out the last of the great oak forests of the United Kingdom. He escapes blood-thirsty midges and a murderous Hungarian architect while visiting a colony of forgotten Scottish wallabies; finds out how termites, brought in on packing crates after the Second World War, contributed to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans; and dodges crocodiles and big guns in the eucalyptus forests of Ethiopia. And, in true Glen Chilton fashion, he never turns down the opportunity to share a few pints with eccentric locals, often finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Little is known about the Labrador Duck, which once populated eastern North America but has been extinct for more than a hundred years. Stuffed specimens are rare-- only fifty-four are thought to exist. Even rarer is the kind of scientist who would travel around the globe more than three times in search of every last stuffed bird. And what about the curse? Everyone who has owned a particular specimen has come to a bad end. Over the course of his epic journey, Chilton encountered a colourful flock of scientists, journalists and amateur ornithologists, not to mention a Scottish egg thief. His pursuit of the extinct species took him from the duck' s breeding habitat in Labrador to Europe and America as he searched museums and personal collections. He also endured numerous hangovers and narrowly avoided arrest in New York City, all leading up to his final pursuit of the last duck and his own part in the species' many-feathered legacy. The Curse of the...