The Forger's Daughter

by Bradford Morrow

When a scream shatters the summer night outside their country house in the Hudson Valley, reformed literary forger Will and his wife Meghan find their daughter Maisie shaken and bloodied, holding a parcel her attacker demanded she present to her father. Inside is a literary rarity the likes of which few have ever handled, and a letter laying out impossible demands regarding its future.

After twenty years of living life on the straight and narrow, Will finds himself drawn back to forgery, ensnared in a plot to counterfeit the rarest book in American literature: Edgar Allan Poe's first, Tamerlane, of which only a dozen copies are known to have survived. Until now. Facing threats to his life and family, coerced by his former nemesis and fellow forger Henry Slader, Will must rely on the artistic skills of his older daughter Nicole to help create a flawless forgery of this stolen Tamerlane, the Holy Grail of American letters.

Part mystery, part case study of the shadowy side of the book trade, and part homage to the writer who invented the detective tale, The Forger's Daughter portrays the world of literary forgery as diabolically clever, genuinely dangerous, and inescapable, it would seem, to those who have ever embraced it.

• ISBN10: 0802149278
• ISBN13: 9780802149275
• Publish Date: 8 September 2020 (first published 1 September 2020)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Mysterious Press
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Forger's Daughter is a very well written bibliomystery full of forgery, hidden motives, secret book collections, and murder, capably written by Bradford Morrow. Due out 8th Sept 2020 from Grove Atlantic on their Mysterious Press imprint, it's 288 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.

This book ostensibly follows on from an earlier work with the same characters from 2014, The Forgers, but I found it worked very well as a standalone. The only troubles I had with following the current work was due to the alternating plot narration which often switched mid-chapter without any forewarning. Chapters beginning in Will's voice would suddenly switch mid-stream to Meghan (Will's wife) speaking about her husband. I didn't find the character voices distinct enough that it was easy for me to tell without contextual clues - both are in first person, and they blended together.

Apart from that, the plot moved along at a good clip and I loved the dichotomy of the rarefied and refined world of antiquarian bibliophiles listening to classical music and then rubbing literal elbows with seriously disturbed thugs who threaten violence (and some of whom wouldn't hesitate at murder). The denouement came rather suddenly from a long buildup and, to me, was somehow incomplete, more implied than overt. There were some nice suprise twists at the very end and the entire ending felt like foreshadowing for the next episode.

Quite capably written and entertaining, it compares favorably with other "serious" modern bibliomysteries and reminds me stylistically in a lot of ways of Amanda Cross' wonderful Kate Fansler books - fans of that series will find a lot to like here. Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.