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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)

by Fidelis Morgan (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Frequently Bought Together

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)
Price For All Three: £20.67

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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Collins Crime (5 Nov 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0002326965
  • ISBN-13: 978-0002326964
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.4 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 663,956 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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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 '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

Literary Review
‘Thigh-slapping, exclamatory stuff … loudly, lustily, enthusiastically done’ --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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The Rival Queens (A Countess Ashby De La Zouche Mystery)
61% buy the item featured on this page:
The Rival Queens (A Countess Ashby De La Zouche Mystery) 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)
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Unnatural Fire (A Countess Ashby De La Zouche Mystery)
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Unnatural Fire (A Countess Ashby De La Zouche Mystery) 4.3 out of 5 stars (7)
£5.39
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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wild and weird characters, lots of laughs, great twisty plot, 18 Nov 2001
By A Customer
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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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant period details, racy writing, 14 Nov 2001
By A Customer
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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