The Book Forger

'This is an absolutely fascinating literary detective story. Real-life audacious crimes uncovered by the most intrepid amateur detectives, investigated all over again a hundred years later here, in delicious forensic detail, by Joseph Hone. A must-read for anyone enthralled by the value and integrity of books. A page turner about page turners' * Janice Hallett, author of The Alperton Angels * 'I loved this elegant untangling of a real-life literary mystery. With a cast stretching from Robert Browning to Dorothy L Sayers, it's the perfect piece of armchair detection for any book lover' * Ruth Ware, author of The Woman in Cabin 10 * 'Joseph Hone’s hugely entertaining new account shows how this ‘Moriarty of the book world’ met his match in a duo of intrepid young book dealers ... The Book Forger unfolds as a propulsive if unlikely thriller [and] also a useful reflection on literary forgery in general, which speaks to our own era of post-truth and deepfakes ... Unexpectedly gripping' * Gill Partington, LRB * Hone… [is] a dexterous guide and an astute contributor to the long tradition of writers gripped by the connection between bibliography and crime * Times Literary Supplement * 'An extraordinary story, meticulously researched and beautifully written. Utterly enthralling' * Shaun Bythell, author of The Diary of a Bookseller * Hone is a lively and fluent writer, ratcheting up the temperature with snappy sentences and chapters ending on cliffhangers * Sunday Telegraph * ‘A thrilling unravelling of bookish fraud that reads like a detective story from the golden age’ * Roland Philipps, author of A SPY NAMED ORPHAN * Fascinating… For all the thrills and shenanigans, the forensics and meticulous detail, this is a curiously moving book * Scotland on Sunday * 'Criminally sophisticated skulduggery . . . A thoroughly enjoyable romp through an infamous moment in book history’ * Oliver Darkshire, author of ONCE UPON A TOME * Meticulously researched… The Book Forger is delightfully and unapologetically bookish, offering glimpsed portraits of significant behind-the-scenes literary figures * Spectator * ‘Spies, detectives, forgers, and The Case of the Kernless 'f'. Another superb piece of narrative scholarship from the best storyteller in book history’ * Dennis Duncan, author of INDEX: A HISTORY OF THE * 'Intriguing, well-written, and impressively researched, The Book Forger tells a great story that is truly stranger than fiction' * Martin Edwards, President of the Detection Club * This book has a great story to tell…and Joseph Hone narrates it brilliantly… Hone makes a page-turning narrative of their detective work * Literary Review *