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‘Morgan’s hilarious 17th century romp combines an authentic slice of history with a tantalising storyline… Colourful turns of phrase and witty descriptions – like a bawdy P.G. Wodehouse – leave you with a keen sense of the period. This is a frolicking good read’ Daily Mail
‘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
‘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
Product Description
The first in a hugely entertaining, vivid, colourful and fascinating crime series featuring a down-at-heel countess and her maid on the loose in late Restoration London: ‘A frolicking good read’ Daily Mail
London 1699. Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche, Baroness Penge, Countess of Clapham, former mistress to Charles II, is an aristocrat on her uppers. Cast into the notorious Fleet Prison by the bum-bailiffs, she is forced to turn to journalism: ferreting out scurrilous tit-bits for a scandal sheet. But the Countess and her maidservant Alpiew encounter more intrigue than they bargained for when a mysterious woman hires them to follow her husband, Beau, whom she suspects of adultery.
Their pursuit of Beau leads them to playhouses, scientific lectures, coffee houses, the half-constructed St Paul’s Cathedral and dives of Alsatia, only to end abruptly in a Covent Garden churchyard – leaving the Countess and Alpiew implicated in a murder. And worse is to follow, for to unravel their only clue they must penetrate the mysteries of alchemy…
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'Take this down ... "At the stroke of 8 o'clock this morning, while the night-watch Charlies still slept in their boxes, the Honourable Marmaduke Smallwood tied a knot with tongue which he can never untie with his teeth. Read the first page
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Fan me ye winds! If you're lusting after a great story told by a master (mistress?), buy this book. Anastasia Ashby dela Zouche, Baroness Penge, Countess of Clapham is a new star in the murder mystery firmament. Down on her luck, to all intents and purposes past her prime, the Countess is forced to show her mettle and proves to be shrewd, resourceful and not above a little wheeling and dealing but always with a strong sense of honour and noblesse oblige. Perfect. The most exciting and original detective since Falco, I loved the Countess and her wily side-kick, Alpiew. In our genre-obsessed culture Unnatural Fire will no doubt be straitjacketed as an historical thriller but it's much more than that - not only a brilliant(often gory)murder mystery, a subtle reflection on the nature of love, loyalty and friendship, a cracking, beautifully written yarn which effortlessly brings to life the seething social and intellectual backdrop of Restoration London (Morgan ingeniously uses the different stages of the alchemical process to structure her book) but it's also VERY FUNNY. I hated coming to the end of Unnatural Fire - always a good sign and I'm praying that there'll be a series.
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