Book Review: A Conspiracy of Paper

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David Liss' superb first novel, A Conspiracy of Paper, reaches back to London in the 1700s to wrap a mystery around the simultaneous emergence of venture capital and stock exchanges. One of the few people ever to turn a PhD thesis into a best selling book, Liss explores the criminal underbelly of the new world of exotic venture companies( The South Sea Company, for example) and the competition with the Bank of England for control of the English financial system. All the usual suspects are in place--the hated and rich Jews, corrupt "stock jobbers", murky CEOs, minions often bribed for favors, criminal gangs and best of all, the gullible royalty. 

Benjamin Weaver, an ex-boxer, Jew and consummate outsider, plays the heavy in this tale of stock fraud, idiotic projects and unsuspecting investors desperate for outrageous (and impossible) returns. If this sounds a lot like the early 2000's in the US venture community, you are right on. The London of the early 1700s is a lot more rough than Silicon Valley in the early 2000's but the results are the same--lots of money thrown at questionable companies, much hype in the media and then everyone wakes up one morning to ask why a company with no revenues and little promise of any is worth millions. Duh....

This is a well written thriller that appealed both to the mystery lover in me as well as the venture guy.  I found myself saying, " what a dumb presentation--I'd never fund that dog" and "what are these dopey investors thinking??"  Lots of fun, enough history to make it all believable and a good dose of realistic London life in the 1700s--not very pretty, where life was cheap and hanging was the usual penalty for most any offense by the lower classes.