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The story of an infamous crime, a revered map dealer with an unsavory secret, and the ruthless subculture that consumed him Maps have long exerted a special fascination on viewers—both as beautiful works of art and as practical tools to navigate the world. But to those who collect them, the map trade can be a cutthroat business, inhabited by quirky and sometimes disreputable characters in search of a finite number of extremely rare objects. Once considered a respectable antiquarian map dealer, E. Forbes Smiley spent years doubling as a map thief —until he was finally arrested slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. The Map Thief delves into the untold history of this fascinating high-stakes criminal and the inside story of the industry that consumed him. Acclaimed reporter Michael Blanding has interviewed all the key players in this stranger-than-fiction story, and shares the fascinating histories of maps that charted the New World, and how they went from being practical instruments to quirky heirlooms to highly coveted objects. Though pieces of the map theft story have been written before, Blanding is the first reporter to explore the story in full—and had the rare privilege of having access to Smiley himself after he’d gone silent in the wake of his crimes. Moreover, although Smiley swears he has admitted to all of the maps he stole, libraries claim he stole hundreds more—and offer intriguing clues to prove it. Now, through a series of exclusive interviews with Smiley and other key individuals, Blanding teases out an astonishing tale of destruction and redemption. The Map Thief interweaves Smiley’s escapades with the stories of the explorers and mapmakers he knew better than anyone. Tracking a series of thefts as brazen as the art heists in Provenance and a subculture as obsessive as the oenophiles in The Billionaire’s Vinegar, Blanding has pieced together an unforgettable story of high-stakes crime.

February 1746. The daione sìdhe have the run of what was once Great Britain as Scotland and England struggle to hammer out a treaty. On one side of the disputed border, the Jacobite rebels in Scotland have secured their nation's freedom, but are now faced with the task of learning to live alongside the supernatural beings which now roam the cities and countryside. In London, the English elite are fleeing to colonies overseas, leaving behind an increasingly desperate and loyal few to fight for survival against an enemy which seems to defy the very laws of nature.Ina Bruce, an idealistic Jacobite propaganda writer, struggles to keep the public on the side of their new government. As the strange behaviour of the daione sìdhe erodes the crucial good will of the French and Spanish ambassadors, and a spy undermines her every step, her personal life begins to spin out of control. Meanwhile, Maxwell Thorley, already worked to exhaustion at London's Treasury and Excise, has begun to encounter strange beings that only he can see. When a mysterious Scottish doctor tells him that his visions are the product of magic, not madness, he is tempted into using his newfound abilities to help his country, even at the cost of his fortune, his family, and his soul. As the stability of both governments becomes increasingly tenuous, a cadre of men in Westminster plot to destroy the nascent peace talks, a move which could solidify their hold on power-- or plunge the entire island into anarchy. But now that both sides have called on supernatural forces that they do not understand-- and perhaps cannot control-- it may already be too late.