I love David Liss, and this book is really fun, especially as an audiobook! (Great reader, by the way). I like the idea of magic having been a much stronger force in the past, and I really enjoyed the engagement with British folklore. And hooray strong female lead character! Still, I find his mor...
I can't let a one star review stand without an explanation. I have never rated a book with only one star and I realize this is probably more a function of disappointment rather than a valid literary evaluation. I have LOVED all of the other books by David Liss. This stew pot of magic, real histor...
The descriptions of Lisbon, the Inquisition and the earthquake which destroyed the city (providentially for Our Hero)are the reason that I gave this book two stars rather than one. That is the good stuff.The not so good stuff - the revenge/retribution/atonement mashup that is the plot, and the s...
For the most part I really enjoyed reading The Coffee Trader by David Liss. The main protagonist is Miguel, a Portuguese Jew, living in Amsterdam, and working as a broker in the emerging stock exchange. Miguel and a Dutch woman, Geertruid, scheme to corner the coffee market. Hampering there eff...
First things first. I was fortunate enough to meet David Liss following a panel discussion at the 2013 San Antonio Book Festival. He was cordial, friendly, but almost the textbook academic nerd. Expected, I suppose, but meeting authors whom seem like they would much rather be locked away in the l...
En Una conspiración de papel, Benjamin Weaver se enfrenta a un crimen relacionado con la muerte de su padre, un especulador que se movía como pez en el agua en la Bolsa de Londres. Para hallar respuestas, el protagonista deberá escarbar en su pasado y contactar con parientes lejanos que le reproc...
Billed as a thriller, dark comedy, perhaps even horror novel, The Ethical Assassin might more accurately be dubbed a philosophical puzzler. Imagine the strange amalgam of these traits: reasonable, compassionate, socialist, feminist, and vegan; now place these within an assassin and terrorist. Th...
What I liked:The main character – nothing changed here. We deal here with a very likeable rouge but if you take into account the times he lived in and his underprivileged position within the English society you might judge him even less harshly. Of course Benjamin is hardly a saint - it makes him...
Londres, 1720. Harto de la notoriedad que le persigue por un crimen que no había cometido, Benjamin Weaver, judío, ex boxeador, de extracción humilde y cazarrecompensas, decide contar su historia, exponer en un libro qué hechos lo llevaron a ser condenado a muerte y cómo consiguió huir de la pris...
From the acclaimed author of The Whiskey Rebels and A Conspiracy of Paper comes a superb new historical thriller set in the splendor and squalor of eighteenth-century London. In Benjamin Weaver, David Liss has created one of fiction’s most enthralling characters. The year is 1722. Ruffian for ...
She really ought to have called in by now. B.B. would be waiting. He’d be wondering and very likely worried. He worried about her easily. If she was half an hour late, he’d be a wreck when she got back. She liked to think it was just need—he needed her, and if she’d been killed in a car accident,...
Dr. Roop told me on the shuttle to the station, “and you may get some attention from data collectors from various news outputs. I arranged that they wouldn’t find out when we’re getting in, so they won’t swarm you right away. Just be ready in case word has leaked.” I nodde...
Nor did I know why I was allowed to do it alone. I left Clark’s in a blur of movement, and it seemed to me I did not walk but was transported by some unknown magic to Fourth and Spruce, outside Pearson’s house. Neither Lavien nor Leonidas had come with me. I never asked either of them, but I beli...
MORRISON SAID, AS THE SERVANTS of Newstead would not remain the night in the absence of their master. Slipping in at night increased their chances of finding the book and remaining undiscovered. Lucy knew she would need to bring whatever talismans and protections she could muster against fairies ...
I wished to be alone, and wanted to offer no excuses. The boy was either oblivious to my moods or pretended to be. I didn’t care which, and I hardly noticed him disappear into the crowd. Inácio had become a thief, a pimp, and a fence, and no doubt indulged in all the terrible crimes such men must...