Crazily enough, my novel Pride of Eden, set on a fictional big cat sanctuary on the Georgia coast, released the same day as the Netflix miniseries Tiger King, which follows the feud between zoo owner Joe Exotic and Florida’s Big Cat Rescue:
“A zoo owner spirals out of control amid a cast of eccentric characters in this true murder-for-hire story from the underworld of big cat breeding.”
Since then, Tiger King has taken mainstream culture by storm, and I’ve been receiving multiple messages per day asking if I knew/know about Joe Exotic and the series.
The answer is definitely yes — it’s hard not to research big cat breeding in America without his name coming up. However, I only came to know the full arc of his story in 2019, late in the process of revising the book. There’s a wonderful Wondery podcast on the subject, Joe Exotic: Tiger King, which I highly recommend.
Hopefully, in addition to the obvious entertainment value, the series is casting some much-needed light into the (under)world of big cats in America — one of the main backdrops of the book, which you can order here.
Today, Jessica of E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia, asked me about Tiger King and Pride of Eden. A little cheeky fun — enjoy!
