Author Guide · Narrative Nonfiction
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Kirk Wallace Johnson was standing waist-deep in a river in New Mexico, fly-fishing to get away from his work resettling Iraqi refugees, when his guide told him about a young American flautist who had broken into a British natural history museum and stolen 299 rare birds for their feathers. Johnson spent years chasing the story around the world. Before that he had run reconstruction in Fallujah; after it, he went to the Texas coast to uncover crimes against Vietnamese fishermen that had gone unsolved for forty years. This guide covers all three of his books in order, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 3 books · Narrative nonfiction · 2013–2022 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Kirk Wallace Johnson has published three books: To Be a Friend Is Fatal (2013), about the Iraqis who worked for the United States and were left behind; The Feather Thief (2018), about the theft of rare birds from a British museum; and The Fishermen and the Dragon (2022), about Vietnamese shrimpers and the Ku Klux Klan on the Texas Gulf Coast. All three are true stories of injustice that Johnson could not let go of.
Where to Start with Kirk Wallace Johnson
If you want the famous one
→ The Feather Thief (2018).
If you want the most recent
→ The Fishermen and the Dragon (2022).
If you want where it started
→ To Be a Friend Is Fatal (2013).
All 3 Kirk Wallace Johnson Books, in Order
To Be a Friend Is Fatal
After serving with the US Agency for International Development in Baghdad and Fallujah, Johnson founded the List Project to resettle Iraqis whose work for the Americans had put their lives in danger. The book tells that story, and how slowly Washington responded.
The Feather Thief
In June 2009 a twenty-year-old American music student broke into the Natural History Museum's bird collection at Tring and stole 299 rare birds, some collected by Alfred Russel Wallace, to sell their feathers to the obsessive world of Victorian salmon-fly tiers. Johnson tracked down the thief and the missing skins across several countries. Critics compared it to The Orchid Thief.
The Fishermen and the Dragon
On the Texas coast around 1980, Vietnamese refugees who had become shrimpers faced violence and intimidation from white fishermen and the Ku Klux Klan, while industrial pollution spread through the bay. Drawing on unpublished case files and interviews with Klansmen, shrimpers and investigators, Johnson secured confessions to crimes unsolved for more than forty years.
How Many Books Did Kirk Wallace Johnson Write?
Three books between 2013 and 2022.
- Memoir — To Be a Friend Is Fatal (2013). Read the entries →
- True crime — The Feather Thief (2018) and The Fishermen and the Dragon (2022). Read the entries →
In What Order to Read Kirk Wallace Johnson
His books are not a series. The Feather Thief is the lightest and the best known; To Be a Friend Is Fatal explains the refugee work that runs underneath it.
A reading path
1. The Feather Thief (2018)
2. The Fishermen and the Dragon (2022)
3. To Be a Friend Is Fatal (2013)
Quick facts about Kirk Wallace Johnson
- From
- West Chicago, Illinois
- Before the books
- USAID in Baghdad and Fallujah, as the agency's first reconstruction coordinator for the city
- Founded
- The List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies
- Lives
- Los Angeles
- Also
- Screenwriter; Fulbright Scholar
- Books
- 3, from To Be a Friend Is Fatal (2013) to The Fishermen and the Dragon (2022)
How Kirk Wallace Johnson Writes: The Investigator Who Gets Involved
Johnson does not stay on the sidelines. In The Feather Thief he becomes a character in his own story, chasing the stolen skins long after the police case closed, and he admits how the hunt took over his life.
His books are built on documents and long interviews: in Germany he talked with the feather thief for nearly eight hours, and for The Fishermen and the Dragon he worked through case files that had never been published.
Kirk Wallace Johnson on The Feather Thief, at Yale
A talk and conversation hosted by the Franke Program in Science and the Humanities at Yale, March 2022.Frequently asked questions about Kirk Wallace Johnson's books
How many books has Kirk Wallace Johnson written?
Kirk Wallace Johnson has published three books: To Be a Friend Is Fatal (2013), The Feather Thief (2018) and The Fishermen and the Dragon (2022).
Is The Feather Thief a true story?
Yes. The Feather Thief (2018) tells the true story of the 2009 theft of 299 rare bird skins from the Natural History Museum at Tring, England, and of Johnson's search for the missing feathers.
What is The Fishermen and the Dragon about?
The Fishermen and the Dragon (2022) is about the conflict between Vietnamese refugee shrimpers, white fishermen and the Ku Klux Klan on the Texas Gulf Coast around 1980, and about crimes from that time that went unsolved for decades.
Footnotes
- Kirk Wallace Johnson — Rocky Mountain Writers Festival
- Kirk Wallace Johnson interview — BookPage
- The Great Feather Heist — Smithsonian Magazine
Bibliography last verified 1 October 2026.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
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