This one truly had something that appealed to me across
the board. The tale the of rare book and manuscript trade appealed to the
collector in me. The fact that the main character plied his trade in forging Arthur
Conan Doyle and Sherlock-iana played right into me love of all things Holmes.
Like a cherry sitting on the top of a ice cream sundae, the writing, setting
and characters made Bradford Morrow’s The
Forgers an irresistible choice.
Morrow wastes no time in setting the hook with one of
the best opening lines in recent memory; “they
never found his hands.” From that jumping off point how could you possibly
not be intrigued enough to track down the answer to the mystery?
While it is set in the present, the story is so immersed
in the mysterious world of book antiquities and collectibles that there is
something old world and underground about the collectors, dealers, scouts and
forgers that populate the realm.
Morrow uses a masters touch to finely hone the mix
between setting and time and collector and scoundrel. There is a certain level
of elegance to his writing that just seems to add the proper patina to the
story line; this is not a modern fast paced thriller, but an expertly crafted,
story steeped in the great traditions of the masters of the form that the
collectors in the story seek.
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