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Here is a rundown on the synopsis of the book thanks to Alix Wilber and Amazon.Com:
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A fool and his money are soon parted - and nowhere so quickly as in the stock market, it would seem. In David Liss’s ambitious first novel, “A Conspiracy of Paper”, the year is 1719 and the place London, where human greed, apparently, operated then in much the same manner as it does today. Liss focuses his intricate tale of murder, money, and conspiracy on Benjamin Weaver, ex-boxer, self-described “protector, guardian, bailiff, constable-for-hire, and thief-taker,” and son of a Portuguese Jewish “stock-jobber.” Weaver’s father, from whom he has been estranged, has recently died, the victim of a horse-drawn carriage hit and run. Though his uncle has suggested that the accident wasn’t quite so accidental, Benjamin doesn’t give the idea much credence: “I blush to own I rewarded his efforts to seek my opinion with only a formal reply in which I dismissed his ideas as nonsensical. I did so in part because I did not wish to involve myself with my family and in part because I knew that my uncle, for reasons that eluded me, had loved my father and could not accept the senselessness of so random a death.” But then Benjamin is hired by two different men to solve two seemingly unrelated cases. One client, Mr. Balfour, claims his own father’s unexpected death “was made to look like self-murder so that a villain or villains could take his money with impunity,” and even suggests there might be a link between Balfour senior’s death and that of Weaver’s father. His next customer is Sir Owen Nettleton, an aristocrat who is keen to recover some highly confidential papers that were stolen from him while he cavorted with a prostitute. Weaver takes on the first case with some reluctance, the second with more enthusiasm. In the end, both converge, leading him back to his family even as they take him deep into the underbelly of London’s financial markets.
Liss seems right at home in the world he’s created, whether describing the company manners of wealthy Jewish merchants at home or the inner workings of Exchange Alley - the 18th-century version of Wall Street. His London is a dank and filthy place, almost lawless but for the scant protection offered by such rogues as Jonathan Wilde, the sinister head of a gang of thieves who profits by selling back to their owners items stolen by his own men. Though better connected socially, the investors involved with the shady South Sea Company have equally larcenous hearts, and Liss does an admirable job of leading the reader through the intricacies of stock trading, bond selling, and insider trading with as little fuss, muss, and confusion as possible. What really makes the book come alive, however, are the details of 18th-century life - from the boxing matches our hero once participated in to the coffee houses, gin joints, and brothels where he trolls for clues. And then there is the matter of Weaver’s Jewishness, the prejudices of the society he lives in, and his struggle to come to terms with his own ethnicity. “A Conspiracy of Paper” weaves all these themes together in a manner reminiscent of the long, gossipy novels of Henry Fielding and Laurence Stern. Indeed, Liss manages to suggest the prose style of those authors while keeping his own, less convoluted style.
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I have left all of the review in because it gives very good insight on the book itself without giving away much at all. And quite honestly I find myself with not much to add to it.
The novel turned into more of a mystery then I had thought. In some ways a private investigator type story, but not, given the time it takes place. However, as mentioned by Wilber, because of the prose, storytelling, descriptions, and characterizations, it turned into a very compelling read.
As always with these types of books, I didn’t know who was behind the crimes until I was told. And even so, it wasn’t clear until Weaver talked with another character. But the one thing I did like was that all of Weaver’s work wasn’t just hunches. He took time to agonize over issues sometimes. It was work, and hard at that. He wasn’t just some brilliant man that knew everything that was going on. And quite honestly, Liss weaved (no pun intended) quite a tangled web of conspirators that, to me, was believable, hard to figure out during the reading, yet all made sense in the end.
I know little of the times that Liss wrote about, but they do seem inline with what little I know. Because of that, this probably works well as a historical fiction novel, not just a mystery of sorts. Given that the time and companies that Liss writes about, like mentioned by Wilber, this is highlighting the start of the stock market, so to speak. There is a lot to be had in this novel, and I was glad I took the time to read it.
There are three more books that Liss has written, or is in the process of writing, that involve Benjamin Weaver. As it is, this one can stand alone. There is no need to have to read the next to be totally satisfied with the finish.
7/10
