Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Man-eater. Is there any appellation for a beast indeed, the largest cat, frightening enough as an apex predator more terrifying? This is the fascinating tale of the Champawat Tiger, the most fearsome and most successful man-eater, with 436 attributed kills, ever to feast upon humans. It is also the story of the forces that created her, a perfect storm of a previous disabling wound, loss of prey species, and degradation of natural habitat. Huckelbridge (The United States of Beer, 2016) further widens the scope to include British colonialism in India and Nepal and how misguided agricultural and forestry practices, combined with rampant sport hunting, created an ecological disaster. Finally, this is also the saga of Jim Corbett, an Irishman well acquainted with the effects of British rule who, as an avid sportsman, took on the hunt for the man-eating tigress. In a concluding irony, Corbett was among the first to call attention to the plummeting tiger population. This multilayered approach to what is, at heart, the account of Corbett's long-term hunt for the famous man-eater elevates Huckelbridge's book above the sensational "true tale" to stand as a superb work of natural history.--Nancy Bent Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Historian Huckelbridge (The United States of Beer) showcases his storytelling skills effectively in this suspenseful look at "the most prolific serial killer... the world has ever seen," a Royal Bengal tiger that purportedly killed more than 400 people in Nepal and India in the early 20th century. The narrative's dramatic impact is lessened by endemic speculation, including attributing thoughts to the animal itself. The facts require no such embellishment to hold the reader's attention: a single tiger, prevented by a mouth wound from subsisting on its normal, more agile prey, began hunting people in 1900, kicking off a reign of terror throughout the Himalayan foothills that was ended in 1907 by Jim Corbett, a railway employee and noted hunter retained by the British government to kill the beast. Huckelbridge conducted much of his research using Corbett's own book, and corroboration of many details is lacking; Huckelbridge even presents an epilogue that attempts to validate the Champawat Tiger's body count. He is more convincing, and intriguing, in contending that the bloody episode resulted from the British Empire's "irresponsible forestry tactics, agricultural policies, and hunting practices," and was thus an avoidable disaster. Despite its flaws, this is a gripping page-turner that also conveys broader lessons about humanity's relationship with nature. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Hucklebridge (The United States of Beer; Bourbon: A History of the American Spirit) uses the century-old story of the hunt for a human-eating tiger in British India to explore the consequences of human encroachment on wild habitats. Central to the story is Edward James Corbett, the British railway worker who achieved fame by killing the "Man-Eater of Champawat" in 1907 and went on to extinguish a series of large cats in India in the first half of the 20th century. In the process, he learned of the plight of the Bengal tiger and became a conservationist. Corbett wrote books about his exploits, then used some of the profits to fund a tiger preserve in a national park in India. Hucklebridge notes that tigers had once been cautious around humans and that only when the forests were taken for agriculture and their natural prey disappeared did they begin to hunt humans out of desperation. The author details the fearful power of a tiger attack but closes by stating that it does not match the wanton killing humans have inflicted on such beasts. VERDICT For lovers of history, nature, and adventure stories.-Caren Nichter, Univ. of Tennessee at Martin © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The tale of a killer tiger in the days of the Raj.In November 2018, authorities reported the killing of a female tiger that had killed at least 13 villagers in the hill country of central India. The problem of killer tigers is growing there, reports continue, because critical habitat and suitable prey are scarce. So it was more than a century ago, when, writes Huckelbridge (The United States of Beer: A Freewheeling History of the All-American Drink, 2016, etc.), a tiger called the "Man-Eater of Champawat" killed a reported 436 people. And not just that; in the author's overwrought formulation, that tiger becomes "a serial killer that was not merely content to kidnap victims at night and dismember their bodies, but also insisted on eating their flesh." Well, yes; it's in the job description of a tiger that can't find a deer to bring down. Intriguingly but somewhat clumsily, Huckelbridge joins the tale of the tiger to the history of colonialism and its extractive economies, with deforestation and habitat destruction combining to make of the Champawat tiger "a man-made disaster." Surveying other such killer animals, among them a wolf or feral dog that killed 113 people in France and a Nile crocodile reputed to have killed 300, the author chases down the known facts of the tiger, which had roamed well outside its territory into the foothills of the Himalayas and was hunting the most readily available prey. Its end came at the hands of a game hunter named Jim Corbett, who tracked him down after a long search that turns purple at key moments: "And all at once Jim Corbett understands what's been done to this poor creature, a story written in malice and pain. But the number 436 leaves no room for pity, and twenty feet affords him no chance at escape." Such flourishes are unnecessary given the inherent drama of the story and the nice irony that Corbett would become a leading advocate of tiger conservation.An overwritten narrative that will be of some interest to fans of apex predators. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
