A conspiracy of paper

Description

THE HISTORICAL THRILLER OF THE YEARBenjamin 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.

Description

"In "A Conspiracy of Paper, " David Liss has woven a tale of 18th-century finance, murder, and religion that is a remarkable debut and a thoroughly satisfying novel."--Arthur Golden, author of "Memoirs of a Geisha."

First Sentence

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.

Subjects

Genres

• Mystery
• Fiction
• Historical fiction

Links

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Other Editions

• A conspiracy of paper: a novelRandom House2000-01-01
• A conspiracy of paperRandom House2000-01-01
• A Conspiracy of PaperElectronic resourceRandom House Publishing Group2000-01-01
• A conspiracy of paperThorndike Press2000-01-01
• A Conspiracy of PaperPaperbackBallantine Books2001-01-30
• Zagovor bumagAzbuka-klassika2006-01-01