{"id":7051,"date":"2026-08-14T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=7051"},"modified":"2026-08-14T11:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:51:00","slug":"fake-news-1893-by-michael-rodney-moore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=7051","title":{"rendered":"Fake News 1893 by Michael Rodney Moore"},"content":{"rendered":"

An atmospheric historical novel where greed and counterfeit silver fuel a forgotten American hoax<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201c\u2026He knew there was a price to be paid, and he was tired of waiting for the bill to be delivered.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

History often leaves behind unanswered questions. Fiction gets to imagine the rest. Drawing on the real \u201cGreat Bakersville Riot\u201d hoax and nineteenth-century counterfeiting legends, Michael Rodney Moore adeptly explores how seemingly unrelated lives and crimes might have converged in Fake News 1893<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Set against a struggling economy and collapsing silver prices, Moore builds his story through overlapping perspectives. Secret Service agent Ezekiel \u201cZeke\u201d Duncan\u2019s pursuit of a counterfeiting operation draws together staid lawmen, grasping businessmen, hopeful artists, and crooked politicians whose lives are shaped by greed and ambition. Each of them is swallowed up by the counterfeiting scheme, as one owner of a failing silver mine dreams of joining the ranks of Vanderbilt and Rockefeller.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Though the stakes are high, the pacing is measured. Rather than rushing from revelation to revelation, Moore focuses on the mechanics behind nineteenth-century counterfeiting, allowing economics and politics to come to the forefront. Fake News 1893<\/em> isn\u2019t about a tense cat and mouse chase but an immersion in the period and how the Silver Purchase Act shaped it. The approach makes for a steady, thoughtful reading experience, where understanding the historical backdrop becomes as important as solving the crime.<\/p>\n

It makes sense, then, that the novel\u2019s strongest voices belong not to the man determined to stop the scheme but to those caught up in creating it. Their motivations are more nuanced than Zeke\u2019s, whose pursuit of justice is comparatively conventional. Jeffrey \u201cBrooksy\u201d Brooks, the mine owner\u2019s longtime bodyguard and friend, reminisces about wanting to become wealthy enough to provide for his family, only to realize he has outlived the dream that once drove him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Likewise, Mint employee Harold Radcliff\u2019s deteriorating vision fuels an increasingly humiliating paranoia over his wife\u2019s fidelity, making for one of the novel\u2019s most memorable character studies. Together, they illustrate Moore\u2019s greatest strength: finding emotional complexity in the people history might otherwise overlook.<\/p>\n

With an understated approach, Moore\u2019s overlapping storylines rarely feel contrived. Chance encounters arise naturally from the counterfeiting operation, creating the realistic impression that their lives might have crossed paths. Shared memories of the Civil War bind many of the men together, even as their morals place them on opposite sides of the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Frequent perspective shifts and relatively short chapters help distinguish the novel\u2019s many voices while allowing each storyline room to develop. What feels less convincing is the romance between Zeke and Harold\u2019s widow, Clara, which is marked by cliche and dialogue that feels out of step with the novel\u2019s otherwise grounded realism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a welcome degree of authenticity behind the lengthy train rides, rural homesteads, and cobbled paths. The period feels both accurate and alive. Although the Bakersville hoax lends the novel its title, Moore is more interested in the conditions that made it possible. Greed, political upheaval, and an ambitious counterfeiting operation become the real story, transforming the infamous hoax from the novel\u2019s premise into its natural conclusion. The result is a successful historical novel that leaves readers as curious about the history behind the fiction as the fiction itself.<\/p>\n

The post Fake News 1893 by Michael Rodney Moore<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An atmospheric historical novel where greed and counterfeit silver fuel a forgotten American hoax \u201c\u2026He knew there was a price to be paid, and he was tired of waiting for the bill to be delivered.\u201d History often leaves behind unanswered questions. Fiction gets to imagine the rest. Drawing on the real \u201cGreat Bakersville Riot\u201d hoax […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}