'A pacy confection of history, mystery and romance.'  The Times

Despite being the leading expert in his field, Fitz has never really fulfilled his potential, never written the great book on extinct species that everyone expected from him when he was setting out.

Suddenly a figure from those days reappears in his life.  The beautiful Gaby wants him to help find something that vanished over two hundred years ago from the collection of the pioneering naturalist Joseph Banks: a speciment known as The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta.

Unsure of the reasons behind this quest, but spurred on join it by his beguiling lodger Katya, Fitz soon finds that the only way to solve the puzzle of the missing bird is to unravel the mystery of Banks's passionate affair with a young woman - Miss B. - who has disappeared from history as effectively as the creature he is hunting.

It is the story of her life - poignant, courageous, shocking - and of her relationship with Banks, which twines around the enigma of Fitz to produce a wonderful double-helix of secrets and surprises.