A Conspiracy of Paper

David Liss is another one of those prolific authors that, until now, has not been reviewed in the blog. He’s an author of more than 30 books, and A Conspiracy of Paper was the historical thriller of the year in 2000. The story is set in London in 1719 and it involves Benjamin Weaver’s attempt to solve the mystery of his father’s murder, a father from whom he has been estranged for 10 years. His father was a stock trader at the time when the stock markets and the use of paper money were just coming into common usage. Weaver, a Jew who changed his name to limit anyone’s knowledge of his connection to his father, Lienzo, a Jewish “stock-jobber.” Not all stock-jobber’s were Jewish, but all stock-jobber’s were mistrusted, but to be a Jewish stock-jobber was sure to elicit hate from all who dealt with them, and Lienzo was widely hated.

The story itself had an excellent cast of characters to fill out the action. I thought the eventual resolution was convoluted, but as interesting as the story, was the historical aspects of this. Liss’ characters ran the gamut from wealthy aristocrats to beggars and whores. Weaver was a retired pugilist, who was not practicing his Judaism. The place was nearly lawless and the judicial system was corrupt. He made a living by finding thieves and stolen goods for various aristocrats. Sometimes he worked as a protector for the wealthy. So, he was a thug who interacted at the edge of aristocracy. At the time in London, Jews could still not own property. If a Jew stepped on the wrong toes with minor misdeeds, their livelihood, if not their lives, were in danger. This novel was not a short read, but it strikes me as having been scholarly accurate in depicting the times about which it was written. I’m definitely willing to read another Liss novel.

The Ethical Assassin by David Liss

“Crap! What are you doing here?”

Poor Lem Altick is just a kid selling encyclopedias door-to-door to raise money for college and get the hell out of the cesspool known as Florida. And he’s pretty good at it, too. He’s sitting in the Meadowbrook Grove (a noted Fla speed trap) trailer of Karen and Bastard, about ready to sink the hook and get the down payment. Karen is writing the check when our ethical assassin, Melford Kean, throws open the door and plunks Karen and Bastard with a 9mm right between their eyes. Whoops. Melford notices Lem sitting there. “Crap! What are you doing here?”

And so begins the saga of young Lem and his dealings with Melford who constantly challenges Lem with arguments about the ethics of this and that. Along with this minor ethical breech of murder is Police Chief Jim Doe who not only runs Meadowbrook Grove, he is also the proud owner of an inherited industrial hog farm, an under the radar meth lab, and a really tender set of ‘nads courtesy of a Miami reporter who wouldn’t play along when pulled over for speeding. Or how about B.B. Gunn, the head of the encyclopedia scam, and his girl Friday Desiree, the surviving conjoined twin. Now B.B. rationalizes his fascination with young boys by calling himself a mentor all the while having a couple idiot teenagers selling Doe’s drugs under the cover of the encyclopedia bookmen. And then there is The Gambler who does Gunn’s bidding. And Bobby, the crew boss who is skimming payments from his set of sellers.

So, why were Karen and Bastard killed? Turns out Melford is not only a reporter, but also a member of an animal rights group investigating stolen pets and a research lab that buys strays. Melford repeatedly takes Lem on an ethical debate and the one about the exceptionalism of man takes oh, maybe 5+ pages of tedium.

Anyway, in the course of 48 hours, Lem witnesses 2 murders, stumbles across 4 more bodies, relaxes his personal ethics for an Indian book seller on the team, survives a dip in a hog waste pond, and walks away with $40K for college.

Liss has authored a bunch of historical novels and Whiskey Rebels was favorably reviewed here. This more contemporary tale has been compared to Hiaason’s humorous blasting of all things Florida. While I wouldn’t say this is as clever as anything Hiaason has done, it still pokes fun at industrial farming, drug runners, dirty cops, salesmen, and, most importantly, people who hide behind ethical arguments to rationalize their position. This took me longer to read than anticipated, probably because of a hangover from that 950 page monster by Clancy. I’ll probably look at Liss’s Edgar award winning historical mystery A Conspiracy of Paper sometime in the future. I just have to get the image of Lem diving under the surface of the hog pond searching for his just shot ethical advisor out of my mind.

East Coast Don

Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

I had received this as a Christmas present and it sat on my nightstand until I finally decided to tackle it. A full size hardback of a bit over 500 pages.

This is an historical novel set just after the Revolutionary War as the new nation struggles to set itself on a new experiment in liberty and freedom. Washington is President, Aaron Burr is a Senator from NY, Alexander Hamilton in Secretary of the Treasury and Jefferson is on the sidelines, hating everything Hamilton represents. There are 2 main characters. Ethan Saunders was a cunning spy who was disgraced as a traitor and is now a useless drunk. The other is Joan Maycott, a thoroughly modern woman who reads, dreams of being a novelist. She finds a man she likes and pursues him to the alter.

Now here is where if can get a bit complicated. For the most part, the tales are told in parallel in every other chapter. Ethan's mentor as a spy had a daughter whom Ethan was set to wed. Then the father was murdered and the rumor was he was partly to blame. Cynthia marries for money and comfort and out of Ethan's life. now, 10y later, she seeks him our to help her find her missing husband.

Joan's husband was in the war and like most veterans, held worthless script for back wages. They are tricked into exchanging the script for land west of Pittsburgh. While in the wilderness, they perfect the trade of whiskey making and run afoul of the local baron who wants to corner the market.

Now as disparate as the two stories seem, there is a connection. Hamilton is trying to set up the Bank of the United States and to help set it up, he gets congress to pass a whiskey tax. This is an affront to those in the wilderness who view this as a burden on the poorest of citizens. Ethan's search for Cynthia's husband brings him into the world of traders who are positioning to score big when either the Bank of the US or a competitor Million Bank of NY open. Joan sets out with a band of woodsmen back to Philadelphia with a plan to break Hamilton and his bank. to do so, she must use cunning and manipulation to get her house of cards built and then at the right time, to cause it to collapse.

The author is very clever in how he winds these stories together. The way he tells the tale, each appears to be parallel in time, but actually, the Maycott story covers a much longer period of time and the two tales actually meet in time on the last 50-100 pages. As Ethan reforms and gets off the bottle, an investigator working for Hamilton tells Ethan he was nothing but a useless drunk when they met. And now? Now, Ethan is a useful drunk. In the end, Joan is successful in destroying the man who tricked her and her husband so many years ago, but fails to bring down Hamilton and his bank. I was sort of reminded of the last scene in the movie The Sting when Paul Newman asked Robert Redford if scamming the bad guy was enough to pay back for the loss of his friend and Redford replies something like 'No, but it's close.' Joan won . . . sort of.

good stuff, once I got used to the formal language and behavior of the characters of the time. In this age, honor and reputation ruled and to insult one's honor was to invite a challenge. Smears one's reputation and you best be watching over your shoulder and these folks had a very long memory.

EC Don