A review by plax1612
The Day of Atonement by David Liss

5.0

My bookmark has just hopped out of David Liss's The Day of Atonement, which I enjoyed very much. At the back of the book Liss thanks a lot of people and indicates the research that he did, which really shows in the descriptions of 18th century Lisbon. I like the character of Sebastian Foxx (ne Sebastiao Raposa; Raposa means fox in Spanish & Portuguese). The end of the book is very open, and I hope that means Liss will continue it as a series. His mentor (who only appears briefly) is Benjamin Weaver of Liss's other books, so perhaps there is a collaboration for the two of them?

The book has a series of very clever yet quite believable plot twists, including one involving a natural disaster that sent me to the Internet to see if it really had happened. So Liss was quite clever in tying in Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement (just passed) and this major event in Portuguese history.

Overall, quite an excellent read.