The Forgers

I hate Bradford Morrow, the author of this thriller--as well as his accomplice, narrator R.C. Bray. Longtime readers of mysteries aren't fooled easily, so imagine my surprise at being completely taken in by Bray's calm, trusting-- emphasis on the word "trusting"--tone. Bray draws you into a world of high-end forgery of literary relics and letters with perfect pacing and a learned emphasis on the importance of a manuscript or a highly valued autograph. His talent for bringing likable, interesting characters to life is fully utilized to devastating results. Listeners expecting the usual murder mystery with an ending telegraphed chapters in advance will be disappointed. You've been warned. R.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Starred review from September 1, 2014
Onetime forger Will, the refined if unreliable narrator of this artfully limned suspense novel from Morrow (The Diviner’s Tale), gets involved in the macabre mutilation-murder in a Montauk, N.Y., beachfront cottage of his girlfriend Meghan’s brother, Adam Diehl, who was, like himself and Meghan, a member an insular circle of rare book aficionados. But as soon as Will starts to discuss the blackmailing missive, written in Henry James’s distinctive hand, that undid his career as a forger, one hardly needs to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that much more is going on than initially meets the eye. Indeed, as the story of tenuously reformed Will’s attempt to move forward with a normal life with Meghan unfolds,, the insights that Morrow offers into the lure of collecting, the rush of forgery as a potentially creative act, and underlying questions of authenticity render the whodunit one of the lesser mysteries of this sly puzzler. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agents.