Hollywood always seems to have a love affair with
big-budget movies featuring lots of high-speed chases and super-loud
explosions. If you're lucky, these films
can sometimes even be a little suspenseful and have you hanging on the edge of
your seat. For me though (and other
bookish individuals I know), literary thrillers can have just as much
suspense as those types of movies, and Bradford Morrow's The Forgers definitely has its share of page-turning action. What a movie this would make (I see either Ryan
– Gosling or Reynolds - as the lead character)! But knowing the film world, I doubt they would even consider it.
Will, our narrator, has never known a life outside of rare books and
manuscripts, and it seems natural that he would turn to the lucrative business of forging. After being caught (of course), he eventually gets his life back together with Meghan, a bookseller who he
meets through Adam, her brother. Adam is
also thought to be in the "business" and is murdered possibly because
of it. Morrow crafts a tale of intrigue
and backstabbing in this literary environment, with the final puzzle pieces not
being placed until the very last pages.
There's nothing I like more than an unreliable narrator,
and The Forgers definitely has one in
Will. He tells his story in his own
sweet time, and the plot can seem slow paced.
Sometimes I wasn't even sure if the answers would all come by the end,
but when they finally did, they came with a bang. I even had to reread a few pages to make
sure that I really read what I thought I had just read.
So no, Hollywood, there aren't any explosions per se in The Forgers, but boy, is there ever suspense. Highly recommended.
MY RATING - 4
