A Spectacle of Corruption by David Liss

This was sitting on the "Get 3 for 2" table at Borders when I decided I needed to pick up a copy of The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead as a gift for the Gentleman Friend, so I figured what the hell - I ended up with this and a copy of In Cold Blood that I'm sure I'll never get around to reading. Anyway.

A Spectacle of Corruption is the sequel to the Edgar Award-winning A Conspiracy of Paper, and it follows the further violent and convoluted adventures of hunky Jewish boxer-turned-thief-catcher Benjamin Weaver through the seamy underbelly of 18th-century London.

While CoP focuses on the murder of Weaver's stock jobber father (I am so twelve, but the word jobber cracks my shit up) and the South Sea Bubble, SoC takes a look at the, er, corruption of the 18th-century political machine. Boatloads of whores (without a heart of gold, thank god), gambling, drinking to excess, fistfights, and various scalliwags abound. Delightful. It's like James Ellroy without the use of wacky lingo.

The reaction to these books is weird - people either love them or hate them - and I fell on the side of love (for once in my coldhearted life). The wrybrarian was reading his other book, The Coffee Trader, and was less than thrilled. I started reading SoC and couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of CoP. My only complaint is the sort of abrupt ending to SoC, but it definitely leaves Liss open for another sequel, and since Weaver is a hilarious and entirely entertaining character, Liss would be completely insane to not use him in another book or twelve.