In A Conspiracy of Paper, Benjamin Weaver must investigate a crime of the most personal sort, involving the mysterious death of his estranged father, a notorious stock-jobber. To find the answers, Weaver is drawn into the labyrinthine world of British finance, where powerful men from the South Sea Company are among the first to issue certificates of stock, an innovation that sets off a frenzy of speculation among investors and wariness among directors of the Bank of England.
As Weaver immerses himself in this strange new economic order, he must also contend with a garrolous prostitute who knows too much about his past and an estranged family that doesn't know quite what to make of him.
Written with scholarly attention to the detail of the period, 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 origins of today's financial markets.
