‘The Forger And The Thief’ by Kirsten McKenzie is a historical thriller that has an interesting blend of fact and fiction throughout the story.

Set in 1966 in Florence, Italy at the time of the river Arno’s flooding of Florence we follow five strangers, who are all in Florence for their own reasons and are all so vastly different but find themselves being brought together in the force of the Arno gaining great power. I must pause at this point and tell you that even the river Arno is made into a character. A powerful and formidable voice within the story. Kirstin McKenzie has done a fabulous job of creating an identity for this angry river.

Each chapter follows a different character in this book and is titled as such. We have The Guest, The Wife, The Student and finally The Custodian. These five people are as diverse as you could think and they are so well defined I had no trouble keeping up with all their different storylines. These people are so busy with their own dramas, that they have no idea of the environmental issue which soon impacts upon them all for different reasons. I was completely absorbed in the characters and what was going on for them, the forgery was the underpinning theme throughout and it made the book so interesting for me.

The mystery of all the guests’ reasons for being in the same place at the same time kept me hooked and attempting to find something to connect them all was something I enjoyed. Needless to say, I couldn’t find anything and had to wait for the author to release the secrets.

An absorbing mystery thriller that has been written very cleverly with so much attention to detail and has clearly been researched well. If you enjoy a mystery and a bit of history this book comes highly recommended.

Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources and Kirsten McKenzie for the copy of the book so I could write my review today.