Ahoy there me mateys!  I wish I would have known that this book was a reissue 15 years after its original release and that the book originally had been an expansion of a news article.  Because while I enjoyed parts of this book a lot, I believe these two facts were what led to overall disappointment.

The blurb had promised the story of John Laroche, the orchid thief of the title.  Turns out there really wasn't enough substance in the theft part.  So only some of the chapters dealt with him.  And of those chapters, many of those dealt with the Seminole nation of Florida and Laroche's relationship with the tribe.  Many of the other chapters dealt with the orchid professional in general, some snippets of Florida orchid growers specifically, and then had random forays into elements of Florida history and orchid history.

Now I did love learning about the Seminole tribe and Florida real estate history and the Fakahatchee Strand.  But I felt it was more like reading small tantalizing articles that tried to shoehorn in orchids without getting into enough detail to satisfy in any area.  Also this was written in 1998 in the earlier days of the internet.  It makes sense because it felt like the research was not its strong point and the majority of it was the author's opinions and commentary from those that she interviewed.  Not horrible but I wanted more.

I think I just wanted more in-depth orchid science and a more deftly constructed book.  I do have to give a shout out to narrator Anna Fields.  She did a great job with the given material and I don't think I would have enjoyed this nearly as much without her.  No regrets but not one to recommend either.  Arrr!