The Forger's Daughter

The Forgers Daughter by Bradford Morrow is his ninth novel, but he’s written many other things as well. Do you think of yourself as a bibliophile? Do you love mysteries. There’s no doubt that you’ll love this book. It is magnificent. It’s the first such review of a work by Morrow in our blog, and now I have yet another author with whose work I must get familiar. The Forgers Daughter will be released on 9/8/20, less than two weeks from now. My advice, get it in your reading queue now.

After starting my last review with a quote from Alfred Hitchcock, this book starts with one by Poe from “The Imp of the Perverse”: “I am more certain that I breathe, than that the assurance of the wrong or error of any action is often the one unconquerable force which impels us, and alone impels us to its prosecution. Nor will this overwhelming tendency to do wrong for the wrong’s sake, admit of analysis, or resolution into ulterior elements.”

Will has a distant history of having forged old manuscripts, but he’s gone legitimate for at least 20 years. He has a skill with letterpress printing which allows him to forge old books, in this case, Tamerlane ,an early and unsigned book by Edgar Allan Poe. It’s not only the art of printing, but the paper and ink have to be right to get by the experts, and Will is just the man for the job. Since going straight, will has helped in his wife’s used book business, but he was essentially blackmailed by Henry Slader, a sociopath who has long been more than a thorn in the side of Will and Meghan. Together they had a daughter, Nicole, who is now a late teen, and then they took on the care of Maisie, who had already grown up without a father, and then at the age of five, lost her mother to cancer (Meghan’s sister). The titled character was Nicole to whom Will had taught his knowledge of printing books which included learning to do calligraphy. Nicole was a natural talent in that art and she quickly mastered it. As Will’s skill began to deteriorate, Nicole was needed to take over for him on the calligraphy tasks. Wise beyond her years, she soon realized that they were involved in the illegal creation of the Poe book.

Slader commits a murder in the course of the book, although that is not central to the action, He had assaulted Will in their earlier years, causing great permanent damage to Will’s printing hand, leading to a long prison term for Slader. These were the stories that legitimized Will and Meghan’s fear of him. Also, the book starts with a mystery as to Maisie’s paternity. The author introduces a number of characters in the book business, and then there’s the unsolved murder of Adam, Meghan’s brother, which happened around the same time Will began leading a more lawful life.

There is artful character development, and the plot development is flawless. This novel rates as my favorite for the year 2020.