Review
'Fidelis Morgan's tale of love and greed and alchemy in 1699 is a heady compound of wit, wisdom and wildness. It's an unsentimental warts-and-all portrait that reeks of authenticity, written with a brio that reflects the age' Val McDermid 'Hilarious 17th century romp, which combines an authentic slice of history with a tantalising storyline. An authority on the era, Morgan has created an inventive book which wears its learning lightly. Colourful turns of phrase and witty descriptions -- like a bawdy P.G. Wodehouse -- leave you with a keen sense of the period' Daily Mail 'A lusty, audacious historical romp ...all the bawdiness of London at the turn of the 18th century is brought to life' Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian 'Thigh-slapping, exclamatory stuff ... loudly, lustily, enthusiastically done' Literary Review 'The perfect autumn read' Marie Claire
In this fourth Countess and Alpiew mystery, the unlikely pair scramble through the coffee houses and murky alleyways of 17th-century London in search of a stolen diamond. During their quest, the 65-year-old countess and her trusty maid encounter insurance scams, tales of scuppered ships and cannibalism, and meet an array of flamboyant characters who might have stepped straight out of a novel by Daniel Defoe. The author wears her knowledge of life in Restoration England well - comfortably playing with details about "new inventions" such as hot chocolate and stock broking. The heroines feel like genuine women of their time, and the only hint of 20th-century sensibilities is in their treatment of a runaway black slave. The author is an expert in Restoration comedy and has written several non-fiction studies of 18th-century women - so you are in the hands of an expert helmswoman, free to enjoy her excellent stories without the annoyance of historical inaccuracies. (Kirkus UK)
Product Description
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.
