Fortune's Slave (Countess Ashby dela Zouche)

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.If you haven't yet made the acquaintance of the Countess and Alpiew, I urge you to do so at once. You will be rewarded with thrills and laughter aplenty. Steven SaylorFidelis Morgan's books are meticulous in their historical accuracy, zestful in their crime plotting, and very funny. Simon BrettA delicious, rollicking romp of a mystery that kept me enthralled. Fidelis Morgan writes just the sort of story I love, full of sensuous details that make history come alive... I can't wait to read her next one. Tess GerritsenI challenge you to open a Fidelis Morgan at any page and not to be grabbed and plunged into a story where the action is non-stop and outrageous. The Countess Ashby de la Zouche books are a joy, written with tremendous energy and flair. It goes without saying that Fidelis has done her history homework, but no one ever made history more fun. Peter LoveseyMorgan's novels are a hoot, and packed to the hilt with parody, drama, luscious costumes and gruesome re-enactments. Hangings, shootings, dismemberings and a glorious lack of morality abound. Morgan is adept in contrasting her characters with their surroundings and with each other... She brings dank, disease-ridden London vividly to life, with great humour... The Countess and Alpiew are comic creations of genius. Morgan's roller-coaster romp of a novel is a hard act to follow. The Herald