All the king's men

A Spectacle of Corruption

By David Liss

Random House, 381 pp., $24.95

David Liss's first book, ''A Conspiracy of Paper," was so well regarded by mystery fans and professionals alike that it received the coveted Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel for 2000. Now, for his third novel, Liss journeys back to 18th-century London for a sequel that is every bit as good as his remarkable debut.

''A Spectacle of Corruption" tells the story of a Benjamin Weaver, a ''thief taker" by profession, the man to see if you need a stolen item returned, a criminal found or a debt paid -- think of him as a periwigged private eye.

As the book begins, Weaver is on trial for a murder he did not commit, a crime of which he is so obviously innocent that he is utterly shocked to find himself quickly convicted and sentenced to an even quicker hanging.

Fortunately, both for his own sake and ours, Weaver escapes from London's death row and disappears into the city's dark streets, hiding from those who would collect the substantial bounty on his head while trying to uncover the mystery of his false conviction and the enemies who lay behind it.

Weaver disguises himself as a gentleman of society, a wealthy planter newly arrived from the West Indies with a fine set of clothes and a new powdered wig, bought with stolen funds, of course. This enables him to live a life he hardly knew existed, so much so that he is reluctant to return to his humble, middle-class existence.

As Liss so brilliantly reveals the tangled elements of his plot, Weaver (and his readers) gradually discover that the thief taker's woes are merely the outermost layer of a dense cake of deceit and, naturally, corruption. The diabolical scheme to see Weaver hanged has its roots in a much larger and more dangerous intrigue that might just threaten the safety of the entire realm.

This is where ''A Spectacle of Corruption" contains its most surprising and fascinating aspects; not in the mystery, excellent though it is, but in the masterful exploration of the intricacies of British politics.

The author does a dazzling job of augmenting his plot with an examination of the venal politics of the day, filling his story with the election machinations of the Tories and Whigs, and the clandestine plottings of the Jacobites. If you have no idea who those groups are, never fear -- by the end of the book, Liss will have you as educated on the subject as any Oxford first-year.

Benjamin Weaver isn't the only fascinating character the author has created. The thief taker encounters many colorful rogues as he skulks through the underside of London, including a handful of toughs from the city's docks and their equally dangerous counterparts in society. A few of them really shine, especially the dastardly but alluring Jonathan Wild, Weaver's rival for chief thief taker of London, who becomes an untrustworthy but useful ally. Watching Weaver deal with them all, a largely unredeemable menagerie, is never less than fascinating and amusing.

Best, though, is the sad, wistful relationship between Weaver and his former love Miriam, the woman whose devotion he once hoped to earn but instead lost to a man of greater status and wealth. When Weaver encounters her once again, in his fantasy life as a gentleman, it is plain to see that he still yearns for her, and the pain this causes him cannot help but touch the reader with its honesty and futility.

Also crucial to the telling of the story is Weaver's Jewish heritage. Given the rampant anti-Semitism that existed in Britain at that time, the thief taker cannot avoid the stigma that society places on him because of his religion. This becomes a significant part of the intrigue as well, as the treatment of Jews was a point of contention between the political parties.

The author pulls no punches when he writes in the vernacular of the time, allowing his characters to speak freely and spew the venom of hatred that was a common and accepted part of English high society. The depth of prejudice is all the more shocking when the reader realizes, and Weaver optimistically relays, that England was regarded as one of the most tolerant of European countries when it came to its treatment of Jews.

That knowledge of the 18th-century world and its Zeitgeist is part of what makes ''A Spectacle of Corruption" such a compelling story. As we plunge into Liss's long-gone world, by turns both fascinating and horrifying, we are transported wholly to that distant time and place, a feat that requires no mean skill on the part of its author.

Liss's mesmerizing prose is so finely crafted that one might mistake his book for literature, were it not for the fact that it is so well plotted and entertaining to read that it is obviously a work of genre fiction.

Fans of English history will no doubt find much here to enjoy. Even those who don't care for crumpets, though, or have no idea of the difference between the white roses and the red will be hard pressed not to enjoy this wonderful book. It is easily one of the year's best.

David Montgomery is the editor of Mystery Ink (www.mysteryinkonline.com).