ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Fans of David Liss' Edgar Award-winning debut novel, A Conspiracy of Paper, will welcome the return of "thieftaker" and retired boxer Benjamin Weaver in his third work, a sequel entitled A Spectacle of Corruption.

Having covered the world of early stock-trading in his first novel, Liss now places Weaver at the center of an 18th-century British political campaign in an era of Jacobite plotting to overthrow the reigning monarch, King George I.

Liss said there were a variety of motivations behind his decision to return to the character.

"There are a number of things involved," Liss recently told ThisWeek. "One is that I really like the period, and I have a lot of fun writing the character. And there was a certain amount of interest, both in terms of my publisher and my readers, in returning to the character. And when I wrote the first book, I certainly left that open as a possibility.

"I didn't have to do a lot of work to make a sequel seem plausible. It just sort of felt like a natural next project for me. I had some ideas that I wanted to play around with, and it all kind of came together."

Liss' original idea for the sequel was transformed over the course of his research into this tale of Weaver's escape from prison following a false conviction and his immersion into the intrigues and political corruption of the Parliamentary election as he seeks to clear his name.

"I actually started out wanting to write a book about witchcraft in 18th-century England," Liss said. "I spent months doing research on it, and when I sat down to write the book, I ultimately came to the conclusion that the only context in which it made sense to talk about it was within a political context. I started by trying to work out a novel about an election in which witchcraft was a central issue. And as I worked through it, I realized that I was more interested in the election, and the witchcraft element just didn't interest me. So then I went back and did more research on the electoral process."

Research is a significant element of Liss' work. In both the Weaver books and his second novel, The Coffee Trader, Liss offers readers an accessible look at significant historical events and phenomena with a variety of themes related to the eras running throughout, as well.

"My research tends to be kind of front-loaded," he said. "I'll do most of my research up front, and then as I go along, I might come across questions that I initially hadn't anticipated, and I'll go back. Mainly, I'll just collect as much relevant data as I can and go through it and see what ideas come together as I read through the material."

In returning to Weaver, Liss found that the luxury of a ready-made character eased the writing process and made his work on this novel particularly enjoyable.

"For me, the hardest thing about writing a novel is getting the right voice down," he said. "The second-hardest thing is plotting, but the voice is always the thing that I have to work the hardest at. And I have the real luxury in this book of going to it with that already worked out. So it meant that I could just get right to the fun part."

In addition to Weaver, another favorite character from the first novel, Scottish surgeon Elias Gordon, returns in A Spectacle of Corruption.

"People have responded very well to that character, but he's, in a lot of ways, kind of a stock character from 18th-century novels and plays," Liss said. "He seems fresh to those people who don't know that material.

"The idea of the impoverished Scottish surgeon is kind of a clich? in 18th-century novels -- and the folk side of that was the impoverished Scottish surgeon who is overeducated and whose education is in some way a hindrance to his getting ahead rather than something that helps him. Particularly in the first novel he was useful because I could put fairly complicated ideas about finance in his mouth to make them go down a little bit easier."

In both novels, Gordon serves as a means to introduce a variety of theoretical concepts and approaches to problem-solving, ranging from probability theory in the first novel to misdirection in the latest one.

A background in academia -- he began his first novel while working on a doctoral dissertation on 18th-century British literature and culture -- has left Liss with an affinity for theory and an interest in introducing it into his fiction.

"The novel I'm working on now is largely about post-Marxist theory. It's sort of a thriller about post-Marxist theory," he said. "I do, I think, get stuck on these ideas or concepts, and I think, 'Oh, it would be fun to write a novel that circulates around this idea or that idea.' It's frequently less of a challenge than I initially think to make that work out.

"With this novel (A Spectacle of Corruption) and the idea of misdirection, I was actually influenced by a book I'd read when I was finishing up my second novel. Ricky Jay ... put out a journal which was compiled into a book called Jay's Journal of Anomalies, and it deals a lot with 18th-century performers, or early modern performers. And when I was working on this book, I had the idea that Weaver would be accused of a crime and have to try and figure his way out. So I had the stuff I'd been reading fairly recently about 18th-century magicians in my head -- and the idea of misdirection -- and it seemed like it was a good opportunity to sort of put that into play."

In his next novel, Liss plans to look at a much more recent history, setting it in 1980s Florida. The fact that the author grew up in Florida indicates that a bit more of his own experience might show up in the next book.

"I would not say that the novel's autobiographical, but it's certainly far more autobiographical than, say, something set in 17th-century Amsterdam (as The Coffee Trader was)," Liss said. "I am drawing a little bit more on personal experience in this one than in the more research-driven novels I've written before."

Liss is scheduled to appear at CCAD's Canzani Center at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, as part of The Thurber House's spring Evenings With Authors Series. For tickets or more information, call 464-1032 or visit www.thurberhouse.org.

<b>czempter@thisweeknews.com

Edgar Award-winning author David Liss appears as part of The Thurber House's Evenings With Authors series at the CCAD's Canzizni Center at the corner of Cleveland Avenue and East Gay Street at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 23. Tickets are $15 in advance or $18 at the door with discounts for students and seniors. For information, call 464-1032 or visit www.thurberhouse.org