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The Rival Queens (A Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery)
 
 
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The Rival Queens (A Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery) [Paperback]

Fidelis Morgan
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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The Rival Queens (A Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery) + Unnatural Fire (A Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery) + The Ambitious Stepmother (Countess Ashby 3)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins; New Ed edition (4 Nov 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006514537
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006514534
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 429,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Fidelis Morgan
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Product Description

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

Literary Review

‘Thigh-slapping, exclamatory stuff … loudly, lustily, enthusiastically done’

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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First Sentence
'If you don't reduce your pace, I shall have an attack of the spleen, madam,' shrieked the Countess at her maid, Alpiew, who was running a good twenty yards ahead. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is the second of Fidelis Morgan's 17thC detective novels drawing on her knowledge of Restoration female dramatists, and once again the period flavour and details are great. The plot, on the other hand, is decidedly full of holes - although if you wanted to be charitable you could point out that so are the plots of many female (and male) playwrights of the time, and so maybe this is in fact a deliberately contrived device rather than just a lack of heavy editorial control! The only thing I found mildly irritating was the slightly anachronistic name of the main character (Anastasia? Really?) and the dialogue, which wavers between period slang and definitely twenty-first century sloppy. However, notwithstanding all that these novels do have a very definite charm and are infinitely better than most of the third-rate, supposedly 'historical' detective fiction currently swamping the market, and for authentic background details on cosmetics, staging, players and prophylactics against syphilis this really couldn't be beaten. A great, funny comfort read, curled up in front of a fire with a cup of chocolate or a sack posset. I'm looking forward to the next!
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I wondered if Fidelis Morgan could pull it off again - second novels in this genre tend to be pale, sloppy shadows of the first. But The Rival Queens is, if anything, better than Unnatural Fire - think Tarte Noir circa 1699. The author knows her period (The Restoration) inside out and transports the reader there without making it feel like a history lesson or bogging him or her down with attempts at bogus contemporary lingo ('pray fit on ver fofa, firrah, whilft I bethink me what to do' - that fort, sorry, sort of thing). Structure, plot and range of characters are masterful. Ingeniously, the novel is structured around The Passions. Trying out the facial contortions necessary to represent each one is great fun but if you're reading The Rival Queens while travelling by train or bus and decide to get in some practice, be prepared for fellow passengers to edge away to safety. For anybody lusting after an un-put-down-able page-turner full of wild and weird characters, with lots of laughs and a nice twisty plot that'll keep you guessing right till the end, this is it. Can't wait for the next one.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By taking a rest HALL OF FAME
Format:Hardcover
"The Rival Queens", is the first work that I have read by Fidelis Morgan whose talents go beyond that of a novelist to being an actress and playwright as well. She also brings to her fiction her writing that documents the true lives of 17th and 18th Century women, and she has also edited the work of others as well. All these accomplishments bring to her writing a great authenticity as she chronicles the mysteries of 18th Century London, the stage, and the players upon it.

It is a fine line between presenting dialogue that is authentic from the 18th Century, and writing so faithfully to every bit of slang then in use so as to make reading a work frustrating to impossible. When I read historical fiction, one of the last burdens I want to have is the constant interruption of language that has become arcane, or footnotes that interrupt the narrative flow. Another failing of some writers is that they take great liberty with the historical figures they place within their fiction. Fidelis Morgan uses Samuel Pepys as a player in her tale, and nothing she portrayed was inconsistent with what I have read of the man.

Her two heroines who are the sleuths are both wonderful, and are a good team while often being the perfect odd couple. This piece has all the drama of hands drenched in blood, blood spouting from public fountains, and bodies that either appear or actually seem to have misplaced some of their parts. The book is fun and entertaining with the author adding enough levity to keep her work from becoming another bloodletting ripper tale. I definitely will be going back to her first work, and I look forward to reading many more

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