The Edgar Award-winning novel "A Conspiracy of Paper" was one of the most acclaimed debuts of 2000. In his richly suspenseful second novel, author Liss again travels back in time to a crucial moment in cultural and financial history. His destination: Amsterdam, 1659--a mysterious world of trade populated by schemers and rogues, where deception rules the day.
Amsterdam, 1659: On the world's first commodities exchange, fortunes are won and lost in an instant. Miguel Lienzo, a sharp-witted trader in the city's close-knit community of Portuguese Jews, knows this only too well. Once among the city's most envied merchants, Miguel has suddenly lost everything. Now, impoverished and humiliated, living in his younger brother's canal-flooded basement, Miguel must find a way to restore his wealth and reputation.

Miguel enters into a partnership with a seductive Dutchwoman who offers him one last chance at success--a daring plot to corner the market of an astonishing new commodity called "coffee." To succeed, Miguel must risk everything he values and face a powerful enemy who will stop at nothing to see him ruined. Miguel will learn that among Amsterdam's ruthless businessmen, betrayal lurks everywhere, and even friends hide secret agendas.