"Like the love child of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle . . . delightful to read."-NPR.org, on The Forgers

A gripping literary thriller that brings readers inside the world of expert forgery, rivalrous fury, and generations of dark family secrets, with Mary Shelley's voice and life woven throughout

Literary forger Henry Slader, assaulted and presumed dead by his longtime nemesis, Will, awakens in a shallow grave, suffocating in dirt. Concussed and disoriented, Slader exhumes himself and sets out to exact revenge on his rival, orchestrate Will's downfall, and make a fortune along the way-armed with a devastating secret about Will's past.

Slader quickly draws in Will's daughter, Nicole, wielding his threats against her father to blackmail her into forging inscriptions by such authors as Poe, Hemingway, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein. As Nicole's skill grows, so does her devotion to-and doubts about-her father's integrity, until she commits the ultimate betrayal for the sake of his freedom. With breathtakingly precise background knowledge and virtuoso execution, Nicole forges a suite of brilliantly convincing and surpassingly valuable letters by Frankenstein author Mary Shelley-planting within them the seeds of Slader's doom.

Moving between upstate New York, a village in Ireland, London, and ending in a shocking standoff at the site of Mary Shelley's grave in a coastal town in Southern England, The Forger's Requiem is both a compelling standalone novel and the crescendo ending to the trilogy Joyce Carol Oates has called "lethally enthralling to read."

About the Author

Bradford Morrow is the author of nine novels and a short story collection. He is the founding editor of Conjunctions and has contributed to many anthologies and journals. A Bard Center Fellow and professor of literature at Bard College, he lives in New York City.

Reviews

Praise for The Forger's Requiem:

This tale of high-end literary forgery is set in a subculture rife with professional jealousy, personal rivalry and murderous impulses." -Sarah Lyall, The New York Times Book Review

"Morrow offers fascinating insights into the literary forger's art. Although this is the concluding volume to the author's trilogy (The Forgers, The Forger's Daughter), it can be read as a dark, twisty standalone thanks to plenty of backstory."-firstCLUE Reviews

"Spellbinding . . . a brilliantly constructed story of revenge, redemption, deception, and betrayal . . . Spectacularly well written and fiendishly clever, this is both a terrific conclusion to a trilogy and a wonderfully satisfying standalone."-Booklist

"A compelling tale of decades-long hatred . . . An out-of-the-ordinary treat for serious fiction readers. Distinct in subject matter but not tone, this book echoes Daphne du Maurier's Gothic novel Rebecca and Poe's fevered tales."-Library Journal

Praise for The Forger's Daughter:

A New York Times "10 Best Crime Novels of 2020" selection

A Publishers Weekly "Best Mysteries & Thrillers of 2020" selection

An Amazon "Best Books of the Month: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense" selection

A New York Post "Best Books of the Week" selection

"In Bradford Morrow's The Forger's Daughter, there is artistry in the successful re-creation of rare books and manuscripts...His sympathetic cast of characters-Henry aside-face difficult moral choices and try to prove the old cliche that there is honor indeed among (literary) thieves."-Wall Street Journal

"Love is strange. It ennobles some people, makes fools of others, and occasionally leads to murder. In Bradford Morrow's lovely literary mystery, The Forger's Daughter, the love of books causes all of the above...The elaborate artistic details that go into a literary forgery is itself a work of art."-Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"Evocatively rendered and emotionally resonant, this literary crime novel is the real deal. Morrow's gothic tale bears comparison with Poe's own work."-Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The novel flits evocatively from upstate New York farmhouses to Manhattan auction houses, and there's an aptly gothic tinge to the tense drama that ensues."-Guardian

"This is a crime novel for booklovers...Fascinating and vividly rendered."-Booklist

"If you believe that forgery, specifically in the art and rare-book worlds, is a nonviolent, victimless sort of crime, The Forger's Daughter will give you pause...Nearly every character in this novel is practiced at the art of deception, so reader beware."-Air Mail

"If you are unfamiliar with the underground world of forgery, then prepare to be fully schooled...You don't have to be a book collector or a lover of antiquarian books to enjoy The Forger's Daughter, as it merely provides the backdrop for this classy literary thriller."-Bookreporter.com

"How fitting that the central literary object in Bradford Morrow's new novel, The Forger's Daughter, is a rare work of Edgar Allan Poe. Morrow has long been a master of the literary novel. But with his two forger novels, like Poe himself Morrow has secured his high and enduring place in our cultural landscape in part by demonstrating the deep thematic and aesthetic connectedness of compelling mystery and serious literature. This book will race the pulse and nourish the mind in a dazzlingly seamless way. Morrow's brilliance is unforgeable."-Robert Olen Butler, award-winning author of Paris in the Dark

"Most sequels end up feeling like a pale shadow of their originals, but this one's more like a long-lost twin: unexpected and differently scary. The Forger's Daughter is a fully-formed and satisfying complication of the problems in The Forgers, a morally complex look at the way we forge the bonds of family and friendship, and the very real way in which these bonds are, in a sense, forgeries. This is a book about both what we hide and what we agree not to look at too closely so as to be able to go on living not only with those around us, but with ourselves."-Brian Evenson, award-winning author of The Open Curtain

Praise for Bradford Morrow and The Forgers:

"An excellent suspense novel. . .Bradford Morrow is, quite skillfully, paying homage to one of Agatha Christie's most famous whodunits. Yet even then, he offers a few twists of his own and will keep all but the most astute mystery aficionado guessing about the truth until the end."-Washington Post, on The Forgers

"From its provocative opening line . . . Bradford Morrow's latest novel takes on a knowing, noirish tone, like a crime movie by the Coen brothers. . . . The pleasure of reading The Forgers comes not only from trying to figure out what happened to Diehl but also in deciding, chapter by chapter, how much trust to grant the narrator, who is our only source."-Miami Herald, on The Forgers

"Like the love child of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle . . . delightful to read."-NPR.org, on The Forgers

"The Forgers is quintessential Bradford Morrow. Brilliantly written as a suspense novel, lethally enthralling to read, and filled with arcane, fascinating information-in this case, the rarified world of high-level literary forgery."-Joyce Carol Oates, on The Forgers

"The Forgers is remarkable. Bradford Morrow is remarkable. The Real Thing, which is rare on this earthly plane."-Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours and The Snow Queen, on The Forgers

"Written in a highly polished style . . . The Forgers is an unusual blend of mystery, romance, and the fine art of the fake."-Mystery Scene, on The Forgers

"[An] artfully limned suspense novel. . .The insights 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."-Publishers Weekly (starred review) , on The Forgers

"Will, the narrator of Morrow's seventh novel, is a fine creation."-Kirkus Reviews, on The Forgers

Book Information
ISBN 9780802166517
Author Bradford Morrow
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
Publisher Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press