The first in a crime series featuring a down-at-heel countess and her maid on the loose in late Restoration London.

Unnatural Fire

MORGAN, FIDELIS

Collins

Cover creased, bookseller's marks. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

The Rival Queens

HARPER/COLLINS

The sequel to Fidelis Morgan's hugely entertaining debut, Unnatural Fire, again featuring the irrepressible Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her stupendously bosomed former maid, Alpiew, on the trail of murder and mayhem in early 18th-century London Once again Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche, Baroness Penge, Countess of Clapham, former mistress to Charles II, finds herself embroiled in the darker side of 18th century London. The Rival Queens is a tale of actresses, syphilis, juvenile delinquency, artifice, hot drinks and murder...not to mention The Passions and the doings of Samuel Pepys.

The rival queens: A Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery

Literature & Fiction

Literary

London: Harper Collins, 2001

Fortune's Slave

Fourth in Fidelis Morgan's hugely entertaining series featuring the irrepressible Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her stupendously bosomed former maid, Alpiew Unlikely as it may seem, the Countess finds herself with cash to spare. Unlikelier still, she decides to do the sensible thing and invest it, caught up in London society's new craze for stocks and shares. Overnight, fortunes are being made, wealth amassed from nothing in a frenzy of speculation. And with these new-found riches anything can be bought: commodities, monkeys!even people. But as the Countess and Alpiew learn to their cost, investments can go down as well as up -- helped along by a little embezzlement from those bastions of respectability, bankers and brokers. Soon banking leads to begging, burglary, and strange bedfellows -- including an aspiring novelist with a grievance and a hirsute dwarf of astounding agility.

Harper Collins Pb

Restoration London, 1699 -- Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche, Baroness Penge, Countess of Clapham, and former mistress to King Charles II, has astonishingly been jailed in debtors' prison. Joining forces with her loyal ex-maidservant, Alpiew, the formerly pampered and proper Countess sets out to make a living by working for the scandal sheets -- a line of work that inevitably leads her through some of the seamier byways of the city. She and Alpiew find a welcome additional source of income when they are approached by a stranger who asks them to gather evidence to prove her husband is committing adultery. But the uncomfortable job of trailing after the handsome merchant in the depths of winter ends abruptly in a Covent Garden churchyard with a brutal murder.
Implicated in the crime, the Countess and Alpiew find themselves drawn into a complex labyrinth of deceit, violence, and the mysterious world of alchemy. And the more they investigate, the more complex the picture becomes, involving everyone from the most decrepit back-alley criminals to some of the most influential people in all the land.

Unnatural Fire: A Countess Ashby de la Zouche Mystery

Contemporary

Harper-perennial

London 1700. The intrepid and impecunious heroines Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her maidservant, Alpiew, are scavenging for scandal for that scurrilous rag, the London Trumpet. With the bailiffs, as ever, in hot pursuit, the Countess and Alpiew escape to a philosophical lecture at the York Building's concert hall. But their dull evening is confounded when one player staggers onto the stage, hands dripping with blood. A doyenne has been decapitated under their very noses!
The unlikely sleuths find an abundance of suspects: players, fanatics, a Punch-and-Judy man -- not to mention a painter with a silver proboscis. They pursue their quarry from the Tower of London to Bedlam, with a brief detour to the wilds of Wapping, uncovering a shocking web of intrigue and corruption extending to the highest echelons of society and the judiciary.

The Rival Queens: A Novel of Murder in Eighteenth-Century London

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Harper Paperbacks

Misogynists Source Book

Reference

JONATHAN CAPE.

A biography of eighteenth-century actress Charlotte Charke supplements her autobiography with modern commentary on her life, her career, and her reputation

Well-Known Troublemaker: A Life of Charlotte Charke

Faber&Faber

Restoration London, 1699-Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche, Baroness Penge, Countess of Clapham, and former mistress to King Charles 11, as fallen on hard times. jailed in the notorsious debtors' prison, the Fleet, the Countess finds her only way out is to embark on a career selling sensational and explicit stories to one of London's leading tabloids.
Joining forces with her loyal ex-maidservant Alpiew, the formerly pampered and proper Countess sets out to make a living by working for he scandal sheets --a line of work that inevitably leads her through some of the seamier highways and byways of the city. And she and Alpiew even find a welcome additional source of income when they are approached by a stranger who asks them to follow her husband and gather evidence to prove he's committing adultery. But the uncomfortable job of trailing after the handsome merchant in the depths of winter-whether to the half-constructed St Paul's Cathedral or through the notorious dives south of the Strand ends abruptly in Covent Garden churchyard with a brutal murder.
Implicated in the crime, the Countess and Alpiew find themselves drawn into a complex labyrinth of deceit and violence-the key to which might lie in the mysterious world of alchemy. And the more they investigate, the more complex the picture becomes, involving everyone from the most decrepit back-alley criminals to some of the most influential people in all the land.
Unnatural Fire is a wonderfully funny, lively, and audacious novel with a cast of characters that leap off the page. But underlying the vivacity and humor is a riveting mystery that perfectly captures the dark and bawdy underbelly of life in London at the turn of the eighteenth century.

William Morrow

Restoration London, 1700. Those intrepid and destitute heroines the Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her maidservant Alpiew -- whose most recent caper involved trying to uncover an adulterer and accidentally unearthing a plot involving corruption, alchemy, transvestitism, treason and murder -- are once more scavenging for scandal to entertain the readers of that scurrilous rag the London Trumpet. With the tireless bailiffs hot on their skirt tails, the Countess and Alpiew are reduced to seeking refuge in a philosophical lecture at the York Buildings concert hall. But their expectations of a dull evening are confounded when one of the players staggers onto the stage, her hands dripping with blood. A doyenne has been decapitated under their very noses!
In the resulting chaos the unlikely sleuths find themselves with an abundance of suspects: players, phanatiques, punks, ruffians in pink ribbons, a Punch-and-Judy man -- not to mention a painter with a silver proboscis. Determined to leave no stone unturned, they relentlessly pursue their suspect from the Tower of London to Bedlam, with a brief detour to the wilds of Wapping. Along the way they uncover -- with a little help from Samuel Pepys -- a vast web of intrigue and corruption that extends into the highest echelons of both society and the judiciary.
Building upon her beguiling first novel, Unnatural Fire, Fidelis Morgan once again weaves a fabulous romp through London's darker and seamier side, with a charged historical mystery that is as darkly funny as it is gripping and entertaining. An unforgettable story of murder and mayhem, The Rival Queens is a wonderfully complex and revealing portrait of London at the dawn of the eighteenth century.

The Rival Queens: A Novel of Artifice, Gunpowder and Murder in Eighteenth-Century London

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Books by MORGAN, FIDELIS

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by MORGAN, FIDELIS. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Unnatural Fire

The Rival Queens

The rival queens: A Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery

Fortune's Slave

Unnatural Fire: A Countess Ashby de la Zouche Mystery

The Rival Queens: A Novel of Murder in Eighteenth-Century London

Misogynists Source Book

Well-Known Troublemaker: A Life of Charlotte Charke

Unnatural Fire: A Countess Ashby de la Zouche Mystery

The Rival Queens: A Novel of Artifice, Gunpowder and Murder in Eighteenth-Century London