The Absinthe Forger

"Along with the promised detective story, a lively stand-alone seminar on temptation — as well as the culture and history of the much-maligned liquor and its reputation for causing madness and murder." - The New York Times

"Evan Rail follows the trail of a clever and creative fraudster in The Absinthe Forger, an engrossing true crime story. . . . The Absinthe Forger is the bracing true story of a much-maligned spirit and the counterfeiter who turned its mythic status to his own ends." - STARRED review in Foreword Reviews

“The cultural history of absinthe, via an audacious contemporary fraud. . . . An entertaining survey of spirits culture past and present.”  - Kirkus

"Aficionados of pastis, ouzo, modern absinthe, and other such libations will learn a lot here about the ancestral archetype of contemporary anise-flavored drinks." - Booklist

“One of the world’s most celebrated absinthe raconteurs reveals this swindle as only the best gumshoes can: by knowing their quarry from the inside out.” —Warren Bobrow, author of Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today

 “Rail possesses a wide-ranging intellect, deep knowledge of the region, and a storyteller’s gift for unrolling a complicated tale in a way that keeps the reader hanging on every word. The Absinthe Forger is a great story, but more importantly, it’s an opportunity for Rail to relate a rich and compelling history about a still-mysterious spirit.” — Clay Risen, New York Times reporter and author of American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye: A Guide to the Nation's Favorite Spirit

“Evan Rail is a most exotic rarity in the overpopulated world of food, drink, and travel writers: an unimpeachable authority on his subject who is also a consummate raconteur.” —David McAninch, author of Duck Season: Eating, Drinking, and Other Misadventures in Gascony, France’s Last Best Place

“Few spirits capture the history and romance of booze as absinthe does, and there’s no better writer to expose its shadowy past than Evan Rail. Entrenching himself in a world of clandestine distillers and cases of rare bottles found in Italian palazzos, Rail takes us on a tour deep inside the absinthe underground.” — Nicholas Gill, food writer/co-author of The Latin American Cookbook

“Feels like you're sitting right alongside the author (in French distilleries, German apartments, and Austrian train cars) as a boozy mystery is unraveled and a slippery fraudster pursued, all while learning why drinkers have been tantalized, consumed, and gone mad chasing the so-called green fairy over centuries. Evan Rail has long been Europe’s absolute best reporter on alcohol esoterica, and this is his finest tale yet.” 

—Aaron Goldfarb, author of Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits