A retired pugilist who brawled before the advent of "mufflers," Benjamin Weaver—the indefatigable hero of David Liss' masterful historical thriller A Conspiracy Of Paper—describes his multifaceted occupation as "protector, guardian, bailiff, constable-for-hire, and thief taker." To translate from the discreetly oiled language of early-18th-century England, what he really means is "thug." Liss, a first-time novelist currently finishing a dissertation on the period at Columbia University, gets a lot of mileage out of the funny incongruities between Weaver's starched manners and the seamy, treacherous underworld he's chosen to navigate. But such contradictions are central to his richly drawn character, the son of a Portuguese Jew who's estranged from his family and an outsider among the vaguely contemptuous Christians who request his services. As the story opens, Weaver takes on two seemingly unrelated cases. His first client, an unctuous young man named Balfour, wants him to investigate his father's alleged suicide, which he believes was a murder carried out by villains to steal his fortune in stocks. Balfour claims a connection between this incident and the hit-and-run carriage "accident" that killed Weaver's own "stock-jobbing" father a week earlier. Weaver's second patron, a high-spirited and financially generous aristocrat, offers the more ordinary and appealing assignment to track down a thieving prostitute and retrieve his possessions, especially an incriminating bundle of personal letters. As the cases deepen and converge, Weaver finds himself drawn against his will into Exchange Alley, an early equivalent to Wall Street that has just as much in common with the Wild West. Given the current era of free-swinging, unchecked capitalist fervor, A Conspiracy Of Paper serves as a potent reminder of the primordial greed and ruthlessness that constitutes legitimate finance. While a scrupulously detailed account of the battles between the traditional Bank Of England and the immigrant upstart South Sea Company doesn't sound like the stuff of great suspense, Liss allows the tension to spill over into subtly nefarious characters and gripping intrigue. As Weaver comes to discover, crisp suits and good social graces are a false front for tactics that are strictly gloves-off.