9 Chapter 9

“Have you ever doubted the provenance of a book someone brought into your shop?” Jackson asked.

“A few times,” Donovan told him. “When I did, even though I couldn’t prove the papers were forged, I refused to buy the book or put it out on consignment. I’d rather not lose my good name because I was greedy.” He paused to take another bite of his pork chop before asking, “Have you ever been hired to work on a book and come to the conclusion that it was stolen, whether the present owner knew it or not?”

“No. I did come across an excellent forgery of the title page in a book which was supposedly signed by both the author and illustrator. Whoever inserted it into the book did a credible job, which fooled the bookseller and his customer. If the customer hadn’t wanted me to fix some very minor damage to the back cover, he would have gone on believing it was exactly what it was purported to be.”

Donovan nodded. “I suspect he wasn’t too happy when you told him otherwise.”