‍The Lincoln Affair

The novel is set in Springfield, IL, the world of Abraham Lincoln.

My audience includes people who like villains, forgers, subterfuge, and a good love story.

Roger Brownlee is a British expat and a bit of a rogue. He’s a respectable bookstore owner, expert forger, and collector of nineteenth-century documents. He’s also a bachelor who has given up on love after a disastrous affair in his youth. His only companion is a neurotic dog with separation anxiety.

On the cusp of his 50th birthday, Roger’s life is upended when a reclusive woman, Dorothea Ross, hires him to appraise a house full of old papers inherited from her historian uncle. When Roger comes upon a genuine Lincoln letter, the temptation to own it overwhelms him, and he creates a forgery that he substitutes for the original.

Then Roger falls passionately in love with Dorothea, the woman from whom he has stolen a priceless document. When Dorothea finds out about his subterfuge, Roger is in danger of losing not only his love, but also his life’s work.