Amazon.com Review
''I sentence you, Mr. Weaver, to be hanged for the most horrible crime of murder.'' Hearing that judicial decree, Benjamin Weaver--former pugilist, current ''thief-taker,'' and future master of disguise--begins one of the sorriest days of his life. And things will only get worse, as David Liss reveals in A Spectacle of Corruption, his exuberant novel of 18th-century political chicanery. Tossed into Londonβs notorious Newgate Prison, Weaver employs his considerable energy and guile (plus tools slipped to him by a mysterious admirer at his trial) to escape--naked--into the city's filthy streets. But then, he risks recapture by trying to figure out who framed him for slaying labor agitator Walter Yate, and why.
How all of this trouble derived from Weaver's pursuit of the culprit behind a priestβs recent spate of hate mail propels the balance of this yarn--the sequel to Liss's Edgar Award-winning debut novel, __. It also pushes the Jewish ''ruffian-for-hire'' into the jeopardous midst of a British power struggle that pits supporters of King George I against the Jacobites, who favor the return of his dethroned Catholic rival, James II. Assisted by his puckish surgeon friend Elias Gordon, Weaver assumes the role of a prosperous plantation owner from Jamaica and penetrates the upper echelons of 1722 London society, hoping to gather information he can use against Dennis Dogmill, a ''vicious and unpredictable'' tobacco man who may actually have ordained Yate's killing. As Weaver ranges through London's fetid pubs and fancy theaters, and attracts the amorous attention of Dogmill's surprisingly shrewd sister, he also finds himself in the uncomfortable position of backing Griffin Melbury, a Tory candidate for the House of Commons--and the man who stole away his beloved Miriam Lienzo.
Liss has a keen eye for entertaining details of Georgian life, from that periodβs exotic diction (''The men in your gang are nothing but cutpurses and mollies and buggerantos'') to its most reprehensible pastimes, including ''goose pulling''--about which the less said, the better. And though some readers may bog down in the explained distinctions between Whigs and Tories, the author finds considerable humor in that political rivalry and the parties' get-out-the-vote efforts. Once you accept the rather dubious notion that fugitive Weaver could hide in plain sight, A Spectacle of Corruption can be appreciated as the lusty thriller Liss clearly intended it to be. --J. Kingston Pierce
From Publishers Weekly
This sequel to Liss's Edgar Awardwinning A Conspiracy of Paper (2000) brings back ex-pugilist Benjamin Weaver and his 18th-century London environs in all their squalid glory. Benjamin has become a ''thieftaker,'' a sort of bounty hunter/private eye, and is investigating the simple case of a threatening letter when he is caught up in a riot, accused of murder and sentenced to hang. After a gutsy escape, he sets about unraveling the mystery of who framed him and why. Donning the disguise of a wealthy coffee planter from Jamaica, Benjamin infiltrates the upper classes, where he encounters a plot centering on a hotly contested House of Commons election. There is much explanation (perhaps too much) of the history and philosophies of the Whig, Tory and Jacobite parties, but this is nicely balanced with Benjamin's forays into London's underbelly, where he has his way with the ladies and dodges dangerous louts looking to kill him. The real fun is the re-creation of the streets of London (''He fell into the alley's filth-the kennel of emptied chamber pots, bits of dead dogs gnawed on by hungry rats, apple cores and oyster shells'') and the colorful denizens thereof. Many hours are spent in innumerable coffeehouses, with Benjamin and company imbibing coffee, chocolate, ale, wine and that great destroyer of the poor, rotgut gin, and employing such useful swear words as ''shitten stick,'' ''arse pot'' and ''bum firking.'' Mystery and mainstream readers with a taste for gritty historical fiction will relish Liss's glorious dialogue, lively rogues, fascinating setting and indomitable hero.
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