The Book Forger

‘A thrilling unravelling of bookish fraud that reads like a detective story from the golden age’

Roland Philipps, author of A SPY NAMED ORPHAN

‘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

'Criminally sophisticated skulduggery . . . A thoroughly enjoyable romp through an infamous moment in book history’

Oliver Darkshire, author of ONCE UPON A TOME

'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 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

Fascinating… For all the thrills and shenanigans, the forensics and meticulous detail, this is a curiously moving book

Scotland on Sunday

Meticulously researched… The Book Forger is delightfully and unapologetically bookish, offering glimpsed portraits of significant behind-the-scenes literary figures

Spectator

Hone is a lively and fluent writer, ratcheting up the temperature with snappy sentences and chapters ending on cliffhangers

Sunday Telegraph

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

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

'An extraordinary story, meticulously researched and beautifully written. Utterly enthralling'

Shaun Bythell, author of The Diary of a Bookseller

'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