I bought two books by David Liss last year: The Coffee Trader and A Spectacle of Corruption and after enjoying the intrigue of Miguel’s woes in trade in the Coffee Trader, and his attempt to clear his debts and path in business, I found myself picking up A Spectacle of Corruption.

Set in 1722, with the author drawing from the history of significant events in England from as early as 1649, the story revolves around Benjamin Weaver who is set to hang from the beginning of the story. His crime being Murder. So, he manages to escape into the London night with one intention, to know who was behind his sentencing and why. Ideally, Weaver is a private investigator and I was taken by his guts to pursue the truth even if it meant landing a few blows and kicks here and there.

Weaver admits that, “London after dark is no place for the vulnerable, let alone the naked, but I had freed myself from the most dreaded prison in the kingdom, and I could rejoice that I still had shoes upon my feet,” the moment he finally escapes from Newgate prison.

As the story progresses, there are but twists and turns and from the very beginning he is pointed in the direction of Melbury, who is running for office in the elections and the husband to the only woman he has ever loved, Miriam. But he refuses to believe that Melbury would want to have him hanged out of jealousy and the more he digs, the more he learns that there is more to voting- to the electors, the politicians and the desire to win.

At some point, as he draws closer to Melbury, the parliamentarian tells Weaver that parliament, voting and the elections is nothing but a ‘spectacle of corruption,’ that it is all about a show of who has more votes, villains, money, a say-and so forth. This in a way got me thinking about voting, government, democracy and our election process in Kenya- and it indeed is a spectacle of corruption. Earlier on in the text, Melbury does not shy away from saying the cost of engaging in politics, “You know nothing of politics…you pay indeed! Politics is corrupt enough without asking the voters to pay for the campaigning.”

Weaver asks him, “why does it cost so much?” To this he responds, ” Because there is a great deal of money to be made, and because the other fellow will spend it of you don’t. The man whos wishes to sit in parliament must offer food and drink…” And how different is this from what we see in Kenya?

Overall, this like The Coffee Trader, is written around one main lead who suffers great injustice and goes about unraveling why and who is responsible using the only means they know- and I couldn’t help but find Weaver both charming and straightforward-kinda like Miguel- speaking his mind without flinching.