The Galapagos Affair

I recently traveled around the Galapagos and, while on Floreana, my guide told me stories about the history of Germans on the island, as well as the mystery of the disappearing Baroness and her lovers. I was intrigued and bought this book when I got home. It's very entertaining, well researched, and a quick read. I like that the reader doesn't jump to conclusions to 'solve' the mystery, but instead offers very realistic speculation and all the relevant facts. Well written.

You couldn't write a novel about the Galapagos this good yet is the telling of a true story. Travel back into time with real life quixotic characters in fast moving story, well researched with interesting pictures. We are visiting the Galapagos soon and this was assigned reading for me - so glad I did it before the trip.

Its a true story about an island adventure gone bad.

Just came back from the Galapagos Islands so it was very interesting knowing the places mentioned in the book. I wish I had read it before going. It is an intriguing and true story.

I loved this book Couldn’t put it down !

A good summary of the historical Floreana events.

We were going to the Galapagos and wanted the dirt on this murder. It was a great book demanding my attention during the entire book. It does not tell you who actually did it. When we visited the island it comes alive because of this book.

I really really liked it. It was recommended by someone whose opinion I trusted.

I first came across this book back in the late 1970s and it kind of stuck in my mind ever since. I'm quite amazed that I was able to obtain a copy after all this time (and it was very cheap!) and am halfway through reading it again. A strange and compelling story of ambition and madness, well worth a read.

This was a very interesting and well researched book about an extremely strange incident! If you don't know the story of the mad Baroness of the Galapagos you really need to read this.

An intriguing story, told in a very readable style. I visited the Galapagos shortly after reading the book, & heard various interpretations of the tale - well worth a read!

In November 2013 I first encountered the “Galapagos Affair”, briefly stipulated in various books and articles about Galapagos. Many accounts were poorly written, and hence difficult to understand – not very surprising, as the events on Floreana Island between 1929 and 1934 were extremely bizarre and difficult to summarize. As I am an author of books about islands myself, I got the idea of writing a “comprehensive” nonfiction book about the affair. However, within 24 hours I “discovered” this book by John Treherne (1929-1989), first printed in 1981. I read it and soon concluded that a new book was not necessary because Treherne did excellent work! Treherne could not solve all mysteries; most likely, various aspects of the affair will always remain mysteries. Regrettably, worse books about the affair – written in German – have been published in recent years. Therefore, it is good that Treherne’s book has been – posthumously – reprinted.

In the 1930s some unlikely pioneers settled on faraway Floreana, a small barren island in the Galapagos archipelago. The cast includes a kinky doctor and his mistress, a young family, and an excentric self-declared baroness and her lovers. The book is a reconstruction of what happened next: intrigues and murder. We'll never know the last of it, but it makes for some fine reading!