This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.
Fiction.
Literature.
" A well-researched and highly entertaining historical mystery debut that compares favorably with An Instance of the Fingerpost. Liss's fiendishly intricate tale of financial skulduggery and multiple murder, set in a solidly realized early-eighteenth-century London, has as its redoubtable protagonist and narrator one Benjamin Weaver. . . . The very model of a modern historical mystery.".
" A Conspiracy of Paper is exciting, intelligent, and witty--a rare combination in historical novels. It is rich in intriguing detail and peopled with fascinating characters. Recommended enthusiastically.".
HTML:
THE HISTORICAL THRILLER OF THE YEAR
Benjamin Weaver is an outsider in eighteenth-century London: a Jew among Christians; a ruffian among aristocrats; a retired pugilist who, hired by London's gentry, travels through the criminal underworld in pursuit of debtors and thieves.
In A Conspiracy of Paper, Weaver investigates a crime of the most personal sort: the mysterious death of his estranged father, a notorious stockjobber. To find the answers, Weaver must contend with a desperate prostitute who knows too much about his past, relatives who remind him of his alienation from the Jewish faith, and a cabal of powerful men in the world of British finance who have hidden their business dealings behind an intricate web of deception and violence. Relying on brains and brawn, Weaver uncovers the beginnings of a strange new economic order based on stock speculation--a way of life that poses great risk for investors but real danger for Weaver and his family.
In the tradition of The Alienist and written with scholarly attention to period detail, A Conspiracy of Paper is one of the wittiest and most suspenseful historical novels in recent memory, as well as a perceptive and beguiling depiction of the origin of today's financial markets. In Benjamin Weaver, author David Liss has created an irresistibly appealing protagonist, one who parlays his knowledge of the emerging stock market into a new kind of detective work.
Limelite: More economic and financial devilry surrounding the East India Company and, of course, coffee. Also featuring another scion of the Lienzo family; this time set in the Low Countries. Of 3 Liss novels I've read (all good) this is the best.
(2000)A Jew in London tries to find out who killed his father only to discover that the murder was part of a stock scam. Set in 1719. Fairly good, bogged down until after the middle.
There were a few things I didn't like about this book, but I enjoyed the story very much. It's a complicated story of stock fraud and possible murder set in a time when paper money and stock exchanges were new. Things weren't regulated as they are today. In addition, there was no police force per se...people largely hired agents to regain stolen property or "enforce" other interests. The plot kept me guessing...and changing my mind...as to how it would come together. It dragged -- just a bit; the book could have been a little shorter, I think.
I didn't like the protagonist, Benjamin Weaver, as a person. But what a well -drawn character! The consummate outsider, flawed, human, trying to get by as best he can.
The book was well researched, and the problems of market manipulation and bubbles continue to plague investors today. There were times, however, when the author explained things through dialogue between characters that felt a bit forced.
Overall, though, the book was very well written. It was written in the style of the time period it portrays, both in terms of specific words and with asides to the reader which was common in novels written in that time. ( )
The plot is centred on South Sea bubble of 1720 that is dubbed as the first stock market crash. The the novel is well researched and has a lot of references to real life characters of the 18th century London. David Liss has deftly handled two (or three ) subplots that made the storyline intriguing. Every page of the novel ripples with writer’s passion. There certain section of the novel, that I feel, are verbose. ( )
The narrator/protagonist, Benjamin Weaver, is a former boxer now chasing down debtors and thieves for well-to-do clients in 1719 London. A Jew, he is estranged from his family, but when a new client hires him to investigate the suicide of his father and the accidental death of Ben's wealthy stock-jobber father, Ben is forced to make peace with his uncle in order to learn more about his father's activities.
Ben knows next to nothing about the fairly new stock market, so there is a fair amount of explanations and info-dumping in this story written in formal English to fit the time period. The more Ben learns, the more he realizes he doesn't know, but attempts on his life convince him to keep pushing for answers. The are enough plot twists, some I saw coming and a couple that surprised me, to keep the story moving and like Ben, I wasn't sure who could be trusted. With its attention to period detail, this historical novel is worth reading. ( )
For some years now, the gentlemen of the book trade have pressed me in the most urgent fashion to commit my memoirs to paper; for, these men have argued, there are many who would gladly pay a few shillings to learn of the true and surprising adventures of my life.
Quotations
Last words
As for justice and revenge, those lofty principles for which the South Sea victims clamored -- these too are but commodities to be bought and sold on the 'Change.
Fiction.
Literature.
" A well-researched and highly entertaining historical mystery debut that compares favorably with An Instance of the Fingerpost. Liss's fiendishly intricate tale of financial skulduggery and multiple murder, set in a solidly realized early-eighteenth-century London, has as its redoubtable protagonist and narrator one Benjamin Weaver. . . . The very model of a modern historical mystery.".
" A Conspiracy of Paper is exciting, intelligent, and witty--a rare combination in historical novels. It is rich in intriguing detail and peopled with fascinating characters. Recommended enthusiastically.".
HTML:
THE HISTORICAL THRILLER OF THE YEAR
Benjamin Weaver is an outsider in eighteenth-century London: a Jew among Christians; a ruffian among aristocrats; a retired pugilist who, hired by London's gentry, travels through the criminal underworld in pursuit of debtors and thieves.
In A Conspiracy of Paper, Weaver investigates a crime of the most personal sort: the mysterious death of his estranged father, a notorious stockjobber. To find the answers, Weaver must contend with a desperate prostitute who knows too much about his past, relatives who remind him of his alienation from the Jewish faith, and a cabal of powerful men in the world of British finance who have hidden their business dealings behind an intricate web of deception and violence. Relying on brains and brawn, Weaver uncovers the beginnings of a strange new economic order based on stock speculation--a way of life that poses great risk for investors but real danger for Weaver and his family.
In the tradition of The Alienist and written with scholarly attention to period detail, A Conspiracy of Paper is one of the wittiest and most suspenseful historical novels in recent memory, as well as a perceptive and beguiling depiction of the origin of today's financial markets. In Benjamin Weaver, author David Liss has created an irresistibly appealing protagonist, one who parlays his knowledge of the emerging stock market into a new kind of detective work.
.
▾Library descriptions
No library descriptions found.
▾LibraryThing members' description
Book description
Haiku summary
LibraryThing Author
David Liss is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
)
)
)
Google Books — Loading...
Wikipedia in English (1)
11