A Conspiracy of Paper

London, 1719. Benjamin Weaver, a Jewish former prizefighter who now earns his living pursuing debtors and thieves, is asked to investigate the suspicious deaths of two stockjobbers, one of them his estranged father. The inquiry carries him through Exchange Alley, coffeehouses, gaming rooms and the city’s criminal underworld, where the notorious thief-taker Jonathan Wild operates behind a public reputation for recovering stolen property.

Weaver discovers that forged shares and concealed dealings connect private murder to the rivalry between the Bank of England and the South Sea Company. The mystery uses the emerging culture of paper credit and stock speculation to examine how confidence, rumour and deception could create wealth before the South Sea Bubble reached its peak, while Weaver’s renewed contact with his Portuguese Jewish family forces him to reconsider the identity from which he has distanced himself.