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eelmore7's review against another edition
2.0
Felt meandering? The climatic pay off was lacking for me.
cassietea783's review against another edition
3.0
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 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.
kittietta's review against another edition
3.0
What could be better than a historical fiction about books? I was hoping this book was, but wasn't aware this was book 2. This keeps happening and wish it was put in the books titles.
I tried to get into this. Started out good, but just seemed to drag on and on and was so hard to get through. I could never connect to the characters, but wonder if I had read book 1, if it had made a difference.
3 stars
I tried to get into this. Started out good, but just seemed to drag on and on and was so hard to get through. I could never connect to the characters, but wonder if I had read book 1, if it had made a difference.
3 stars
annieb123's review against another edition
4.0
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.
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.
mad_about_books's review against another edition
5.0
THE FORGER'S DAUGHTER is a sequel to THE FORGERS and takes place some twenty years later. I believe that not reading THE FORGERS first would be to do a disservice to oneself. Although THE FORGER'S DAUGHTER has the legs to stand alone, having the background from the first book makes this one all the more meaningful.
There are any number of books that are about somebody's daughter (or wife, or sister) which I tend to view as somewhat demeaning to the daughter/wife/sister (or any other possessed female character). For example, THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER is more about the hangman than the daughter. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Morrow has created a daughter that can truly be seen as a strong character quite vital to the plot.
Although the murder mystery is explained in the first book, the consequences of that murder linger in the mind of a deranged bookman. The result is an ingenious forgery plan that adds to our knowledge of the underbelly of the rare book market.
As was THE FORGERS, THE FORGER'S DAUGHTER is a book to savor for its rich prose and fine storytelling.
There are any number of books that are about somebody's daughter (or wife, or sister) which I tend to view as somewhat demeaning to the daughter/wife/sister (or any other possessed female character). For example, THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER is more about the hangman than the daughter. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Morrow has created a daughter that can truly be seen as a strong character quite vital to the plot.
Although the murder mystery is explained in the first book, the consequences of that murder linger in the mind of a deranged bookman. The result is an ingenious forgery plan that adds to our knowledge of the underbelly of the rare book market.
As was THE FORGERS, THE FORGER'S DAUGHTER is a book to savor for its rich prose and fine storytelling.
achoward's review against another edition
2.0
This is a slow starting book. And I don't mean a "get past the first couple chapters slow" kind of book. I mean more along the lines of "get to about 30% on the ereader" kind of slow. The pace is enough to turn off the reader. This reader, however, plunged onward. I really wish I hadn't, because outside of some things I'll get into below, this book annoyed me. A lot.
Twentyish years ago, the now-reformed Wil was a forger, specializing in books and letters. What I did not know going into this book is that it is a sequel to a book called, aptly enough, The Forgers. I've not read that, but I will give this book points for at least being able to stand on its own. Annoyingly, however, this is only possible by the characters telling us all about what happened before. Wil got caught, lost part of his right hand, they moved, and so on. He's now a stay at home dad who occasionally does consulting for the bookstore where his wife Meghan works, as well as authenticity checks for auction houses and book dealers to weed out forgeries. There is a humorous moment when Wil is asked to authenticate something that is his own forgery. Although he points out for the acquirers that it is, in fact, a forgery, without telling them it is *his* forgery, they proceed to overrule him and sell it at auction for a tidy sum. Most of the time - he tells us - they defer to his opinions.
We come to know - via incredibly stilted prose and dialogue, as if this is taking place in 1900 instead of now - that Wil's old nemesis, Slader, is basically blackmailing him into copying Edgar Allen Poe's first book, Tamerlane. Wil doesn't seem to have much of a backbone to me, but there are vague threats and he gives in rather immediately, with his daughter Nicole - herself now an accomplished author and copier - pitching in. I suppose this is what the title meant, and the title implies that the daughter has taken over the forging (at least to me) and that's actually what pulled me in to request it. Alas, it is not the case. Nicole mainly stands by while Wil does most of the work, occasionally going with him to various places because.....because the plot requires it/it's in the script, I suppose.
There's no real tension in the bits where Slader presents Wil with the copy he's lifted from someone's home, with a directive to get a forgery made by x date so he can slip the forged copy back in place and take the (also forged) one he's lifted to sell without the owner being the wiser for it. Wil just gives us giant infodumps about how things were before and how he has all the feels, but in the end, we know forging is in his blood and what he loves to do - because the things he tells us in his lengthy monologues make us understand this is so.
In fact, there's a TON of telling in this book, whether it's Wil or Meg, in their confusingly presented, alternating narratives, running down "what came before" for the reader or just telling us how they feel in the moment. That's the bad sort of telling. The good sort of telling are the details about forgeries and paper and ink and printing and the other things in which a bibliophile (like me; like the author, I presume) would be interested. Those are, unfortunately, the best part of this book.If the author were to write a nonfiction book about the history of forged books, letters, and papers, or even one restricted to a particular genre or author, I'd probably like that lot more than this, which is not very suspenseful, seemed to be wrongly attached to the mystery genre when it would seem more at home in the literary fiction group, and which has an ending I neither liked nor believed, even for a fictional tale.
I'll go briefly into the language of the book - that is, the tone of the prose - as I'm not certain whether the author was writing this way intentionally or ironically (as I'd not read the book previous to this, so could not compare): as I said, this reads like a novel from 1900. The language is stilted for a 21st century couple. Eloquent it may be, but most people - even forgers and bibliophiles - do not speak the way Wil and Meg speak to the reader when they are doing what I always think of as the English parlor act: telling a tale in the age before television or internet, using language that my grandmother would have called high-falutin'. That is to say, their manner of speaking reminds me a great deal of academia, as the sort of oft-parodied tone of upper crust English novels or Downton Abbey and period shows like it. While I would be perfectly fine with this were Wil and Meg and their family placed in that time, it is not the case in this book, and here they (and the author) come across as pretentious.
As for the ending: I rarely say this, but I hated it. It doesn't match the rest of the book, and at least part of it I would like to have known sooner, as it would have not just informed everything leading up to the end, but it would have informed a choice at the end as well.
If you're a bibliophile, you'll probably like those parts very much. It's clear the author is either working in the field or has done a great deal of research in this area. If you're looking for a more mystery-influenced novel, as I did, unfortunately, I don't believe this reaches the level of a book you'll stay up late into the night reading.
Overall: two stars out of five. Sorry, this simply was not my cup of tea.
Thanks to Mysterious Press and NetGalley for the review copy.
Twentyish years ago, the now-reformed Wil was a forger, specializing in books and letters. What I did not know going into this book is that it is a sequel to a book called, aptly enough, The Forgers. I've not read that, but I will give this book points for at least being able to stand on its own. Annoyingly, however, this is only possible by the characters telling us all about what happened before. Wil got caught, lost part of his right hand, they moved, and so on. He's now a stay at home dad who occasionally does consulting for the bookstore where his wife Meghan works, as well as authenticity checks for auction houses and book dealers to weed out forgeries. There is a humorous moment when Wil is asked to authenticate something that is his own forgery. Although he points out for the acquirers that it is, in fact, a forgery, without telling them it is *his* forgery, they proceed to overrule him and sell it at auction for a tidy sum. Most of the time - he tells us - they defer to his opinions.
We come to know - via incredibly stilted prose and dialogue, as if this is taking place in 1900 instead of now - that Wil's old nemesis, Slader, is basically blackmailing him into copying Edgar Allen Poe's first book, Tamerlane. Wil doesn't seem to have much of a backbone to me, but there are vague threats and he gives in rather immediately, with his daughter Nicole - herself now an accomplished author and copier - pitching in. I suppose this is what the title meant, and the title implies that the daughter has taken over the forging (at least to me) and that's actually what pulled me in to request it. Alas, it is not the case. Nicole mainly stands by while Wil does most of the work, occasionally going with him to various places because.....because the plot requires it/it's in the script, I suppose.
There's no real tension in the bits where Slader presents Wil with the copy he's lifted from someone's home, with a directive to get a forgery made by x date so he can slip the forged copy back in place and take the (also forged) one he's lifted to sell without the owner being the wiser for it. Wil just gives us giant infodumps about how things were before and how he has all the feels, but in the end, we know forging is in his blood and what he loves to do - because the things he tells us in his lengthy monologues make us understand this is so.
In fact, there's a TON of telling in this book, whether it's Wil or Meg, in their confusingly presented, alternating narratives, running down "what came before" for the reader or just telling us how they feel in the moment. That's the bad sort of telling. The good sort of telling are the details about forgeries and paper and ink and printing and the other things in which a bibliophile (like me; like the author, I presume) would be interested. Those are, unfortunately, the best part of this book.If the author were to write a nonfiction book about the history of forged books, letters, and papers, or even one restricted to a particular genre or author, I'd probably like that lot more than this, which is not very suspenseful, seemed to be wrongly attached to the mystery genre when it would seem more at home in the literary fiction group, and which has an ending I neither liked nor believed, even for a fictional tale.
I'll go briefly into the language of the book - that is, the tone of the prose - as I'm not certain whether the author was writing this way intentionally or ironically (as I'd not read the book previous to this, so could not compare): as I said, this reads like a novel from 1900. The language is stilted for a 21st century couple. Eloquent it may be, but most people - even forgers and bibliophiles - do not speak the way Wil and Meg speak to the reader when they are doing what I always think of as the English parlor act: telling a tale in the age before television or internet, using language that my grandmother would have called high-falutin'. That is to say, their manner of speaking reminds me a great deal of academia, as the sort of oft-parodied tone of upper crust English novels or Downton Abbey and period shows like it. While I would be perfectly fine with this were Wil and Meg and their family placed in that time, it is not the case in this book, and here they (and the author) come across as pretentious.
As for the ending: I rarely say this, but I hated it. It doesn't match the rest of the book, and at least part of it I would like to have known sooner, as it would have not just informed everything leading up to the end, but it would have informed a choice at the end as well.
If you're a bibliophile, you'll probably like those parts very much. It's clear the author is either working in the field or has done a great deal of research in this area. If you're looking for a more mystery-influenced novel, as I did, unfortunately, I don't believe this reaches the level of a book you'll stay up late into the night reading.
Overall: two stars out of five. Sorry, this simply was not my cup of tea.
Thanks to Mysterious Press and NetGalley for the review copy.
annarella's review against another edition
4.0
I wasn't a huge fan of the Forger as the MC grated on my nerves but I enjoyed this story which is a sort of "twenty years later"
It's a mix of mystery and historical fiction, Will is a tortured soul who is trying to choose the best for him and his family.
The style of writing is pleasant, the plot kept me attention and I enjoyed it.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
It's a mix of mystery and historical fiction, Will is a tortured soul who is trying to choose the best for him and his family.
The style of writing is pleasant, the plot kept me attention and I enjoyed it.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
pixie_hallows's review against another edition
3.0
This one had me on edge the whole time, and I kind of didn't like that? Maybe it's just the suspense-part just didn't appeal to me. I thought the premise was interesting - it's about a forgery of a rare Edgar Allan Poe novella - but I didn't really find any of the characters likeable to me. I did want to keep reading to see what secrets would be revealed and how things would turn out, and I didn't think it did an awesome job of explaining that. So while it did keep me engaged, I wasn't a huge fan. Also, I should add that this is the second in the series. It was my understanding I didn't need to read the first book, but maybe some of my questions might have been answered in that one?
yadirablue214's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
The plotline in my opinion was very interesting and had a great start, granted I didn't know this book was the second in a series. I thought that most of the time the writer over describes many aspects of the scenery and adds many metaphors unnecessarily. I felt the ending was alright but the last 10 pages seemed a bit wild with zero lead up to that fire and ended quite abruptly additionally, (please correct me if I'm wrong) can someone explain to me why Atticus was supposedly Maisie's father but there was absolutely NOTHING in the whole book that suggested or even hinted at that idea and Slader was kind of presented as 'insane' without any real reason. To be fair maybe it was all explained between the paragraphs of metaphors but either way I the pacing to me was good and I don't think it felt rushed throughout the book.
sfetzer's review against another edition
2.0
"The Forger's Daughter" follows retired literary forger Will, his bookstore owning wife Meghan, and their two daughters as someone from Will's sordid past tries to pull them back into the world of creating high risk literary forgeries. Will and Meghan each struggle with their own parts to play in orchestrating the forgery and sale of one of the rarest works in American literature while trying desperately to keep from entrenching themselves in a criminal past that they would rather forget.
While this book is advertised as a thriller, I found it anything but. Any danger or risk inherent in the plot is immediately overwhelmed by extensive and tedious descriptions of outdoor surroundings or antique literary works. Both Will and Meghan narrate the novel, but their points of view are written so similarly that the reader often only knows who is speaking once they mention someone else's name in dialogue. These characters feel static and undeveloped. Will spends a lot of time congratulating himself on his skills in both creating and detecting literary forgeries while Meghan spends a lot of time dropping not-so-subtle hints as to just how cultured and impressive she is in everything from what she buys for her store to what kind of music she listens to. Even Will and Meghan's teenage daughter Nicole has somehow become a wine connoisseur while attending college as well as possessing incredible calligraphic and printing talents. Overall, I didn't find the family interesting to read about, the action compelling, or the constant asides to literary culture amusing.
While this book is advertised as a thriller, I found it anything but. Any danger or risk inherent in the plot is immediately overwhelmed by extensive and tedious descriptions of outdoor surroundings or antique literary works. Both Will and Meghan narrate the novel, but their points of view are written so similarly that the reader often only knows who is speaking once they mention someone else's name in dialogue. These characters feel static and undeveloped. Will spends a lot of time congratulating himself on his skills in both creating and detecting literary forgeries while Meghan spends a lot of time dropping not-so-subtle hints as to just how cultured and impressive she is in everything from what she buys for her store to what kind of music she listens to. Even Will and Meghan's teenage daughter Nicole has somehow become a wine connoisseur while attending college as well as possessing incredible calligraphic and printing talents. Overall, I didn't find the family interesting to read about, the action compelling, or the constant asides to literary culture amusing.