POST‑OFFICE
Postcards of Death
Since 1793, travelers have left letters in a barrel on a Galápagos beach for strangers to deliver by hand. Ethan Kyle has learned to use that trust.
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The story
On Floreana Island, in Post-Office Bay, a wooden barrel has held unstamped letters and postcards since 1793. Passersby take the ones they can deliver in person. Eye to eye.
Ethan Kyle is handsome, brilliant, and knows how to wait. In 2006 he takes the woman he loves to the Galápagos, and there she discovers who he really is. Years later, a couple knocks on his apartment door with a postcard taken from the barrel.
From that day on, the world's most honest mail service becomes a map for a ruthless killer: names, addresses, and entire families who trust strangers. From New York to Florida, from New Mexico to the albatross cliffs, the police manhunt runs straight into history.
Why I wrote it
Besides my wife, what drew me to the archipelago was the blue-footed booby. The first time I saw a photo of this incredible bird, I didn't believe it. I immediately started planning the trip.
We liked it so much that we went back a second time. That trip was not as rich in birds and animals as the first, but it was made up for by the stories I heard. It was because of them that I decided to write this book.
In the six years between one trip and the other, we noticed a big difference: more tourists, hotels, cruise ships. If you visit the Galápagos, help take care of the archipelago, so that it is preserved for future generations.
True stories inside the plot
Every one of these events is real, and every one turns up in the novel. The author heard most of them from guides in the islands.
- 1793
The barrel
English captain James Colnett starts the Post-Office Bay mail barrel on Floreana. Whalers away for years leave letters; homeward ships carry them. Travelers still use it today.
- 1813
Spies at the barrel
The frigate USS Essex, the first American warship in the Pacific, reaches Floreana. Captain David Porter's men read the British whalers' letters in the barrel, learn their routes and capture twelve ships. A twelve-year-old midshipman, David Farragut, takes command of one of them; he later becomes the first admiral of the US Navy.
- 1820
The other Essex
A sailor from the Nantucket whaler Essex, the ship later sunk by a sperm whale and remembered in Moby-Dick, sets Floreana's brush on fire. Whalers carry off as many as 200,000 giant tortoises; Floreana's own tortoises are wiped out.
- 1828
The Beagle's first captain
Near Port Famine, Captain Pringle Stokes shoots himself. Robert FitzRoy, 23, takes command, and on the next voyage brings a young naturalist for company: Charles Darwin.
- 1835
Darwin in the Galápagos
The Beagle reaches the islands. Darwin mixes up his finches; back in London, ornithologist John Gould tells him they are different species.
- 1837
“I think”
In Notebook B, Darwin writes two words and sketches his first tree of life.
- 1929–1934
The Floreana mystery
Dr. Friedrich Ritter, who had all his teeth pulled so he would never need a dentist, settles on the empty island. The Wittmer family follows, then the Baroness, the self-proclaimed Empress of Floreana, said to read other people's letters in the barrel. In 1934 she and a lover vanish, another lover is found mummified on a beach, and Ritter dies of spoiled chicken. No one is ever charged.
- 1934
Sheep in Central Park
The last flock leaves Manhattan's Sheep Meadow. Their sheepfold is now the restaurant Tavern on the Green.
- 1942–1946
“The Rock”
The United States builds an air base on Baltra, a flat lava island with no fresh water. In 1946 it is handed back to Ecuador; its runway is now the airport every visitor lands on.
- 1960s
Diego the tortoise
Only fourteen tortoises remain on Española. An old male taken decades earlier to the San Diego Zoo, Diego, is brought back to the breeding program and helps save his species.
- 1971
Lonesome George
The last tortoise of Pinta Island is found, alone. When he dies, in 2012, his species dies with him.
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