Constantly Moving the Bookmark

Welcome to world of rare books, their collectors and their forgers, of which Will is one of the best. Not only is his line of work profitable because he does it so well, but it gives him a thrill every time a perfectly forged signature comes from his pen. Will firmly believes he is “improving” the rare books as he adds signatures as well as building a “more interesting” history for the books and their long dead authors. How could that be a bad thing? As is bound to happen, Will is exposed as a forger. Making restitution to most (well, some – okay, those who asked) of his clients and promising he is reformed he manages to hold on to and marry Meghan, the love of his life. Meghan’s brother Adam (also a forger) had been brutally murdered, hands cut off, his books destroyed and his home torn asunder. The killer was never apprehended. When Will begins to receive threatening letters, written in the penmanship of Arthur Conan Doyle, attempting to blackmail him back into forgery he is frightened for Meghan and yet torn at the same time. He misses the excitement of the forgery but knows he will lose Meghan if he returns to that world. And, just how much does this mysterious letter writer know about Will anyway?

As a reader one would think any book starting with the line, “They never found his hands” would be a pretty thrilling mystery. Not so much in this case. The murder hovers in the background like an omnipresent shadow that you expect will be drawn back into the main story at any moment. And it is … at the very end. The book held my attention because I enjoyed reading the detailed descriptions of how the forgeries were accomplished. I didn’t like Will very much, but come to think of it maybe that held my attention too. I wanted to know if good-Will or bad-Will would win out when it came to his promise of reform to Meghan. I won’t spoil it, but I wasn’t really surprised.