You know how you fall in love with an author and read everything for a while but lose track now that you no longer go to a physical bookstore and wander the aisles, your fingers trailing along the spines, seeing the old favorites, and excitedly spying new title next to it. I have lost track of Bradford Morrow, reading his first five books and so when I saw his name, I remembered Trinity Fields and Giovanni’s Gift and was excited to read a new book from someone who never failed me yet.

The Forger’s Daughter is a sequel to a book I have not read, The Forgers that did not impede my understanding or enjoyment of the story. The narrative shifts between Will and Meghan, a married couple with two children, Nicole and Maisie. He is a reformed forger and currently a printer. She is a bookseller. When Will is extorted into helping a nemesis from his past with a forgery, his daughter Nicole helps. She is the forger’s daughter of the title. She has a minder of her own.



The Forger’s Daughter is a mix of family drama and thriller. The dynamics between Will, Meghan, and the children shifts and changes and clearly there is a big secret that Meghan does not know so I presume there will be another novel, perhaps one that highlights Nicole.

But I remember his earlier works with such fondness and The Forger’s Daughter does not match them. For some reason, although he is working with a murderous man who chopped off some of his fingers years ago, there is no real sense of menace, perhaps it’s because he brings his daughter along. I know she insists against his better judgment, but a parent can refuse a child’s help.

And yes, there are real moments of jeopardy, but it seems certain that they will be fine. There are also threads left hanging, I hope they will be picked up in the next book.

The Forger’s Daughter will be released on September 4th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

This is a highbrow version of the "one-last-heist" plot line common to crime fiction. But this is no hackneyed story line, thanks to the author's expertise in antiquarian books. Rather than pulling off a final bank job, the main character, Will, (a reformed forger of rare books) is coerced into creating his crowning "facsimile" for fraudulent purposes.

I liked Will's family: his wife Meghan, and their daughters Nicole, an art student in New York, and Maisie, a pre-teen. They live the lives of well-off academics, filled with classical music, rare wines, and really, really expensive books.

Having recently read the first book in the series, The Forger, I expected to glide through this narrative without any confusion. My reading dream state was frequently interrupted, however, by sudden shifts in POV, both in first person, between Will and his wife. I wonder how much more I would have enjoyed the story had that been handled differently?

Still, I recommend this book. The plot is original, the pace is nimble, and the characters memorable. One thing still haunts me, though: For people who love each other and get along so well, they still manage to keep many deep, tragic secrets from each other. As do we all?

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press for an advance readers copy.

“The Forger’s Daughter” is a heist novel set in the overlap of the world of book collection and book forgery.  The family dynamic between Megan and Will, and their daughters Maisie and Nicole is somewhat odd.  Although the family is extraordinarily close, they hide very big, potentially life-shattering secrets from each other.  Much of that secrecy continues all the way through to the end of the story, and the lack of resolution was disturbing.

The highly technical details of antique book production are central to the story, and it will appeal to bibliophiles.  

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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.

Will, a former forger, has served his time in jail and has been a legitimate consultant on rare books for twenty years.  As he and his wife Meghan prepare for time together with their daughters, a scream breaks the silence.  Their youngest daughter Maisie was accosted by a stranger who insisted that she deliver an envelope to her father.  It contains a rare copy of Poe’s Tamerlane.  Several years earlier, Will was attacked by a former associate named Slader, who is now blackmailing him to reproduce the rare book.  

When Will looks at the Tamerlane he sees a challenge.  He remembers the thrill of his days as a forger and the satisfaction of a successful reproduction.  He knows that the only way to get Slader out of their lives and keep his family safe is to complete the copy.  When their older daughter Nicole joins them Will enlists her to help with the project.  While Nicole does not know her father’s entire past history, she is an art student who has learned many of the techniques that Will used in his past career.  As she works with him he is forced to ask her help with more than just the reproduction.  When she senses the possible danger around the family, she becomes protective of her father and a true partner.

The main attraction of this book was the process that Will and Nicole go through to recreate the Tamerlane.  Slader is ever present in the conversations between Will and Meghan and provides a threat throughout the story.  When the project is completed the copy is substituted with the copy for an unsuspecting owner and the original is presented to the public as a newly found copy.  The ending of this book just seems to wind down.  While this was an interesting story and I enjoyed reading it, I would not recommend it to anyone who is looking for a high degree of suspense.  I would like to thank NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing this book for my review.

In this sequel to The Forgers we find Will, the protagonist of that book, his wife Meg and daughters living an idealic life, primarily at their cottage house in upstate New York. After having given up his talent for forgery for twenty years, his nemesis is back to coerce Will back into the game under the threat of exposing a previous crime that could cause Will to get locked up for a very long time. Agreeing to do the dirty work of his blackmailer is just the beginning of this story, In this one though, Will's daughter Nicole gets dragged into committing the misdeeds with him as both are accomplished printers, perfect for the task demanded of them. That task is just the beginning of the dominoes that eventually fall and no one is spared involvement.
Although I enjoyed this one, I didn't love it. The switching from Will's POV to Meg's is rough, without an indication it's changing leaving the reader to wonder who's POV they're reading until the time in the section that it's revealed more clearly. The writing, while still excellent didn't sit as well with me as the first book I think due to now having the multiple POV's instead of just Will's. I will say however, I was very invested in the story and finished it in one sitting. If you're at all interested in the world of rare books, book collecting and the art of forgery there's plenty of that to be had here so you might want to give it a try.

Thank you to both Grove Atlantic as well as netgalley.com for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange of an honest review of the novel.

I have not read anything by Bradford Morrow prior to The Forger's Daughter, but the blurbs around this novel sounded interesting.  The start of the novel begins with a scream from Maisie, one of two daughters of Will and Meg, who are at their cottage in the countryside enjoying a quiet evening otherwise.  Maisie had fallen off her bike after being spooked by a gentleman who asked her to deliver to her father a copy of an old manuscript - an original first copy of Edgar Allan Poe's the Tamerlane.  From that point, the story progresses into how Will and a man named Slader, both forgers of documents, have an unseedy past between them.  It continues with Will and his older daughter, Nicole, making a forged copy of the Tamerlane that will be sold at auction to the highest bidder.  Although Will has some regrets in involving Nicole into the forgery of The Tamerlane, he enjoys her help in the making of the forged document.  And, hence, the title of this book.

I overall enjoyed this novel.  The idea of people really getting into old editions of books and documents, and then trying to counterfeit them was intriguing to me.  Although this was fine as a stand-alone novel for me, I do wish that I had previously read The Forgers, which, I believe, goes more in-depth with the past between Will and Slader.  

In any event, this novel was interesting and I now have a new author to follow.

This is a dense book, the second in a series. It might have been easier to understand the characters if I had read The Forger first. I felt like I have to play catch up to understand who is who. The voices of the man and woman aren't as distinct as could be, which made following the story a bit tough.
It is a complicated story about a former forger and his daughter steps in to help.

The prose has some dated eloquence, which is pretty, in places, but seems out of place. 3.5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley for the ecopy for my Kindle.
This was a good book with lies and deceptions throughout the story,
I read it rather quickly and enjoyed it including  how it ended.  The one fault I had was the use of "gd" word- why must authors use this word?!

Wow - this book leaves me very conflicted.

First, what I had trouble with - while the prose is eloquent and educated, the "voice" made me check several times to make sure the book was set in the present day. It is. However, it sounds like it was written in the late 1800's - early 1900's.  The writing evokes the time of Poe and a genteel class of another time, and maybe that is what the author intended.  The reference to a "hamlet" in upstate New York also sounds more European than American.  The other "voice" issue I had with the story was that there was no delineation between Meg's and Will's narrative - within the chapters the narrative jumped between the two with no discernible difference - you had to wait for the setting to know who was speaking. 

What I loved - the research into Poe, rare books, and printing was intriguing and scholarly.  Since all three topics interest me, the descriptions throughout the book kept this book from going into the do not read pile, as did the mystery of Meg's brother's death.  Although we may deduce who killed him, we never find out why. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for an advance reader's copy for review.

I had read The Forger years ago and really enjoyed it.  This did not pull me in in the same way The Forger did.  I may have enjoyed it more if I had reread The Forger first.  This is definitely assumes you have read and remember a lot from the first book.  I did not like how the book jumped back and forth between Meg's and Will's point of views.  It often took several sentences or paragraphs to figure out whose voice was narrating the chapter - I would have liked a heading at the top of each chapter with the name of the character that was narrating.   However like The Forger, overall the writing is superb - lovely and eloquent.  Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I received a free copy from NetGalley.  An old enemy comes back and forces the forger to forge again.  But he's older and out of practice, so his daughter helps.  Interesting story and the details to how an old book and letter would be copied are done in an interesting way.

This idea of this book was appealing to me, kind of mysterious involving a counterfeit of an Edgar Allen Poe book.  But I found it slow to start and a bit hard to get into.  It was hard to like and relate to the characters.  Maybe it would help if I’d read The Forger.

I was given a free ARC of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I loved the premise of this book. I am an ardent bibliophile, so I really enjoyed how much I learned about books from this book! I will say, however, that I was rather disappointed in the end. The beginning built quickly with intrigue and danger. The reader is almost immediately plunged into the world of forgeries and fences and hidden collections. The book had the sense of building frantically and then suddenly sputtering out at the end. The ending was swift, entirely predictable and, as such, unsatisfactory. In fact, I hated the ending. There were also a few details that were left unresolved, such as the brother’s mysterious murder, that left me wondering if it was a clumsy attempt at setting it up for a sequel. 

There was some foul language and  violence. Overall, I enjoyed this book but wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it. It was more Nancy Drew than Dupin in the end, and as much as I loved Nancy Drew when I was a child, I prefer Dupin, Holmes, Poirot, or evening Miss Anatole over this group. This one was just ok for me.

I did not see this tidbit mentioned anywhere in the information I read about this book, but  this is actually the  sequel to the The Forger. I didn’t read the first book, and I do feel as if this was fine as a standalone. 

The beginning is very atmospheric. A scream in  the night that could be an animal or a person, a wooded area and rain.  As the book continues, questions come into play that demand answers. Who killed Meg’s brother? Why on earth would Will ever help Henry after what Henry did?  Why now? The questions I had kept me reading until the end to get the full story. 

The author did a good job of sharing many details of how a forger works. He also seamlessly wove this story together, and I have to  say I did enjoy reading it.

This grabbed me right away because of the subject matter, rare books, Edgar Allan Poe and forgery!
It had a dynamite opening, frightening and very mysterious, but even though the plot continued to be engaging and interesting, it just didn't live up to that auspicious beginning.
I found the ending ambiguous and lackluster which is less than satisfying after having invested time in reading the whole thing. 
Also, I'm not sure if it was because I was reading an ARC, but it was difficult to determine who was speaking at times, and it had no chapter breaks which I found very annoying.

Even though there was suspense and intrigue throughout the story,  I found it to be slow in places as well as predictable.

Will not leave review any where.
Not my cup of tea, which was surprising, since I'm a cartographer.

Thanks for granting me access to this book

I finished the book feeling glad that I do not know any of these people!  Scary!  Still, The Forger's Daughter is a fascinating book and I learned a lot about forgery, printing, and rare book sales.  The characters, except for adopted daughter Maisie, are extremely complex.  My reaction was frequently, now, why did you have to go and do THAT!  

The book was extremely enjoyable to read and hard to put down.  It was one of those "just one more page" kinds of books and I am glad I read it.  At one point it reminded me a bit of "The Weight of Ink," by Rachel Kadish, another book I found captivating.

Will and Meg, the parents of Nicole (the forger's daughter) and Maisie,  live a secluded life. They seem to have more money than I would expect them to have (the cabin in the woods, the apartment in the City, the trip to Ireland, the printing equipment).  The book raises a lot of questions (who killed Meg's brother?) and doesn't answer all of them.  

I don't know if a sequel is planned.  The forger's daughter could strike out on her own.  And we could get the answers to those niggling questions!

If you haven't read Bradford Morrow's The Forgers, the first book in this series (I hadn't) don't worry. The Forger's Daughter stands very well all by itself.  I read a review copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Mysterious Press. and had a wonderful time doing so. The book is well-paced, entertaining (and instructive about book forgeries and Edgar Allen Poe).  The characters are well fleshed out and intriguing, the writing is taut and compelling.  What I most enjoyed about the book is that it explored interesting issues of obligations and loyalty, the bonds of friendship and family, and indeed what is family.

Twenty years ago, Will, a world-class forger, found himself in serious trouble and ended up in jail.  Now, a former partner blackmails him into a plot to counterfeit the rarest book in American literature: Edgar Allan Poe’s, Tamerlane, With help from his talented older daughter, he makes a perfect forgery, hoping that pays his debt to his ex-partner.  Four years later he discovers it didn't.

One of the signs of a good book is that it makes you want to read his earlier books. The Forger's Daughter did just that.  Better yet, I learned a lot about the tortured life of Mr. Poe. Highly recommended.