Customer Reviews

A Conspiracy of Paper

5 star:		(119)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

David Liss takes his readers to the 18th century. Not only does he capture, from extensive and detailed research, the ethos, color, and texture of the time, but his novel, written in the first person voice of Benjamin Weaver, is a near mirror of the writing style and tenor of 18th century British literature.

In this first novel, Mr. Liss educates about the beginnings of the modern financial world--did you ever wonder how and why poeple started attaching value to paper? But, he does so with the intrigue of murder, clandestine meetings, brawls, and the dark alley mysteries of London life. He paints great pictures of the sights and sounds of 18th century London, and yes you can almost smell the stench of the open sewers which were the streets.

His characters come alive. They are well drawn and vigorous. Benjamin Weaver, his narrative protagonist, is not only likeable, but he is extremely interesting, worldly, and persceptive of human nature and human condidion. (We definitely need another novel with this character as our guide to life and times in London.)

This book is without doubt worth the reading. Although it begins a bit slowly, you are committed to discover with Weaver why his estranged Father has been murdered and what that has to do with potential damaging financial scandals.

Mr. Liss is a gifted writer and scholar of the times in which he sets his very good story. Enjoy, his work. It is a labor of love.

This is a novel that captured my interest and charmed me with the history of London in 1719. The setting was so well developed that I felt I could see the ravages of disease in the prisoners at Newgate Prison and hear the crowd as they taunted a prisoner for being a Jacobite.

Underneath the story itself, there are also political lessons for today when we watch the news and see the political unrest in Egypt and Lybia. This is a time when England is in fear of the French and their support of the deposed King James.

Benjamin Weaver is a Jewish detective who is contacted by a snobbish gentleman named Balfour. Balfour states that he questions his father's suicide and that the person responsible for his father's death is also the person who murdered Weaver's father. This astounds Weaver who was not close to his father and presumed that his father's death was accidental.

Underneath the possible murders is the fact that Weaver's father was a stock trader and there may have been stock forgery that caused the crimes.

Weaver is hired by Sir Owen to retrive some matters he lost when a whore got him drunk and stole his valuables. As Weaver finds the whore, we read of the streets of London and the dangers of a city with little in the way of police.

There are other underlining facts. Weaver is a Jew and there is a feeling in society that Jews are out to steal their money. At one time a character states, "...any man who has lost money in funds (stocks) can follow ...the loss to the hand of a Jew."

I was completely entertained by this novel, the picturesque images of England, the well developed characters and the sophisitcated writing style of David Liss.

Benjamin Weaver is an 18th century London Jew making his way in a complex Christian society, and an equally arcane criminal underworld. After turning his back on family and religion, he has made his living as a boxer, a highwayman, and a thief, until he found the less dangerous occupation of thief-taker. Now drawn back into the world of London's Sephardic Jews by a client who raises questions about Weaver's own father's death, Benjamin is surprised to find himself comforted by the traditions and family he thought he had rejected.

This is one of those books that plop you right in the middle of a fascinating world completely unknown to you. Author David Liss creates the richly textured world of 18th century London Jewry, their traditions, their aspirations, played out against the famous stock speculation by the South Sea Company. Early stock brokers funded much of the 18th century's wars and economic growth from their tables in coffeehouses across London. Of course, there were also disasters, and the Jews, as the only stockbrokers, often took the blame for all sorts of economic downturns, as Weaver finds out.

The characters in "A Conspiracy of Paper" are unusual and engaging. So many books have been set in 18th century London that it seems to be a landscape readers know well. One of the treats of this book is finding a different world in a place we thought we had down pat.

I picked up this book in the store because the cover caught my eye, started reading it by the rack, and could not put it down. Needless to say, I bought it! This is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in I don't know how long. The characters are likable and realistic, the setting (a time and place I didn't know anything about) is beautifully constructed, and the plot is a total page-turner. "A Conspiracy of Paper" seems, at first, to be just a regular mystery, but it is far more compliated, intricate, and clever than any mystery I've ever read. A real treat for anyone who loves to read!

I generally dislike comparing the work of one Author with that of another. But as this is the debut of Mr. David Liss, a reference point or two may be of help.

If the writing of Mr. Charles Palliser is to your liking, or that of Mr. Iain Pears, or perhaps Ms. Tracy Chevalier, this book will earn its place on the same shelf.

The book is excellent, and although its story occupies a time that is not unfamiliar, Mr. Liss has brought a style that is his own. His characters have depth, they do not imitate others drawn in another's book.

The dialogue is well constructed, reads naturally, and together with the narration Mr. Liss and company lead you through a labyrinth of a plot, tempt you with false leads, and pull the carpet out just as you thought you were drawing together the threads. Not a chance, the Author anticipates the reader's moves, and misleads and deceives through a truly wonderful tale!

History, twistery, truth, lies, or mystery? It is all here, brilliantly written by a Novelist that is destined for many great books that I look forward to.

Outstanding!

This is exactly the kind of thing most of us seek historical fiction before: A gripping yarn, a fascinating setting, and a chance to reflect on things that matter to us now in a new way. The two things at the center of this novel-- money and religious heritage -- are of course old hat. But by placing them in the hands of his 18th century boxer, this book gives you the chance to reflect upon them as you never have before. Even better, this book has fascinating, three-dimensional characters (esp. the narrator), about whom you just want to know more and more. It's hard to put this book down.

A Conspiracy of Paper is without a doubt the best historical mystery I have ever read-- suspense-filled, clever, filled with period detail, and written in a narrative voice evocative of the 18th-c without being precious or pretentious. Liss has created a hero who is irresistable and vastly complex. What makes this novel particularly remarkable is its pairing of financial intrigue with the development of probability theory, which is used to wonderful effect. The attention to Sephardic culture and boxing make this novel truly exciting and a pure reading pleasure.

This novel is one of the most impressive debuts I have ever seen. "A Conspiracy of Paper" is a brilliant historical novel that doesn't just slap history onto the mold of a mystery plot, but instead uses a lot of the standard ideas found in mysteries to think about the nature of solving crimes. But this novel is neither ponderous or overly intellectual. It is pure fun! How does that happen? Well, the protagonist, Benjamin Weaver, is absolutely compelling, and he easily guides the reader through places and ideas that are alien, making them fascinating, amusing, frightening or suspenseful. This book is much more thoughtful in its use of historical material (the stock market, prejudice, class difference, etc.) than any other historical mystery I've ever read. And most important, the conspiracy plot works amazingly well. This is a book I could just not put down because I needed to know who had done what and why. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that this is one of those novels where there are lots of shady characters and most of them are up to some kind of no good, but it is almost never the kind of no good the reader suspects. If you like historical novels, if you like mystery novels, if you like novels that are better than 95% of the stuff that's out there, then "Conspiracy of Paper" is for you.

"A Conspiracy of Paper", a first novel from an obviously talented new author, is a very enjoyable book set in 18th century London. It is probably the best historical novel I've read, and richly deserves the awards it's already garnered.

The hero, Ben Weaver, begins to investigate the death of his long-estranged father. Soon enough he finds himself in way over his head, embroiled in the financial intrigue that would ultimately become the South Sea Bubble, causing the ruin of many of London's finest gentlemen.

The style of writing is wonderful, part first person, part narrative, and heavy into the vernacular of early 18th century England. Near the end of the story, this becomes one of those "must stay up until I finish it" books.

A thoroughly enjoyable book. I highly recommend it to those who love the genre.

Good, but not great is how I would rate David Liss's historical thriller, set in 1719 London at the height of the South Seas bubble (and written, not coincidentally, at the height of our own stock market bubble -- the parallels are laid on pretty thick, but are still enjoyable). As a good historical novel must do, Liss admirably conveys the (imagined) sights, sounds and smells of 18th-century urban life, both splendid and squalid. The main character moves smoothly between both worlds: the estranged son of a Jewish stockbroker, Benjamin Weaver has lived on both sides of the law and now makes his living, more or less, as a private detective. Weaver's many double lives -- Jew and Englishman, criminal and law enforcer, son and outcast -- are masterfully drawn, with the help of a vivid supporting cast of characters.

Liss, currently getting a doctorate in 17th century English literature (it seems safe to say, given how well his first novel has been received, that he is probably the happiest English lit student in the country), knows his material very well, and writes with confidence and humor. He deploys some admirable literary tricks, for instance casting the novel as a memoir written decades later by Weaver, which allows him to lard in relevant and interesting historical details without too much sense of authorial intrusion. (Other successful historical novels, e.g. _The Name of the Rose_ and _Lempriere's Dictionary_ pull this trick off with geographical distance, rather than temporal, by sending their characters on journeys into unfamiliar and interesting locales.) Liss also borrows from the writing style of the novels of the time, his own stock in trade, to give the narrative a pleasantly "antiqued" diction and pace.

So what holds this novel back from the greatness to which it aspires? That most important aspect of fiction, plot. The intrigues into which Weaver are drawn, involving his father's suspicious death, stock fraud and the London criminal underground, are a bit too convoluted. It's enjoyable to watch Weaver solve the mystery, with a combination of induction (Weaver's entertaining sidekick, a penniless but charming physician, introduces him to the then-new concept of probabilistic reasoning, and draws a comparison between stock-brokering, detective work and Pascal's wager) and physical violence, but it's easy to lose track of his clues and suspicions. Liss puts so much work into the convoluted mystery that it becomes a bit exhausting. About halfway through, I found myself getting bored with all the characters and their possible motives, and all the talking and thinking about them, and looking forward to another exchange of pistols or another chase through a waste-strewn alleyway.

It's worth comparing _A Conspiracy of Paper_ to _The Name of the Rose_, the apotheosis of the historical thriller. When the truth came out in the climax of the latter book, it all made sense -- I could think back over what I'd read and see all the mysteries illuminated in the light of the truth. When finishing A Conspiracy of Paper, I was happy to find all the accumulated implausibilities and unlikelihoods neatly wrapped up, but the core of the mystery had been somewhat lost beneath the coat of loose ends.