The Rival Queens [Import] [Paperback]

FIDELIS MORGAN (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Collins Crime (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0002326965
• ISBN-13: 978-0002326964
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,134,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Fidelis Morgan was born in a red gypsy caravan, Kiomi Romani, in an orchard at the corner of the grounds of the ancient Amesbury Abbey, halfway between Stonehenge and Woodhenge.

Her parents, Liverpool Catholics, believed in education in the widest sense, and enjoyed picking up waifs and strays. Once the family moved to a house it was not only crammed with animals (cats, dogs, chickens, geese, goats and foxes) but an endless stream of eccentric characters: boisterous painters who picked up women in the street to pose nude in the living room, musicians who battered away on milk bottles, the disgraced son of a local Earl, an Irish builder who had won and lost a million three times over and a bearded man who wore her mother's underwear and did the cleaning while Mae West records played. There was even a famous cat-burglar, who was proudly paraded at school sports day.
Fidelis survived school, despite being jeered at for her northern accent, and being expelled a number of times.

During her school holidays she spent a lot of time living in Paris where her mother sometimes worked as a painter on the Butte, Montmartre. Fidelis regularly earned enough money painting clowns, playing the guitar and giving Americans guided tours in a cod French accent ("Don't you talk good English, little girl. Here's a dollar.") to buy supper for them both.

She gained an honours degree at Birmingham University. Her finals papers were on Restoration London and the world of the 17th century theatre. Which led to her ground-breaking book THE FEMALE WITS, which rediscovered the long lost women playwrights of the Restoration. She followed up with numerous anthologies and biographies set in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including A WOMAN OF NO CHARACTER, and The WELL-KNOWN TROUBLEMAKER.

She works as a professional actor. Her screen appearances include Jeeves and Wooster, As Time Goes By, Mr Majeika, Dead Gorgeous, Big Women and Never Let Me Go.
Fidelis has played leading roles by Brecht, Chekhov, Wilde, Coward, Lorca, Orton, Shaw, Genet, Goldoni, Massinger & Schiller, in companies like West Yorkshire Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse, Liverpool Everyman, Paines Plough and particularly the Glasgow Citizens, where her work won her a Best Actress nomination in The Observer.
She has played opposite Rupert Everett, Glenda Jackson, Dame Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman.


As a playwright, her adaptation of Samuel Richardson's PAMELA won her a nomination as Most Promising Playwright, and was described in the Guardian as "a new eighteenth century play". The Morgan/Benedict play Fragments From the Life of Marie Antoinette won the LIPA award for large cast play 1997, while her adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's HANGOVER SQUARE played for an extended run at the Lyric Hammersmith, where it acquired cult status, and was recently revived to great acclaim at the Finborough Theatre.

Her four murder mysteries featuring The Countess Ashby dela Zouche and her maid Alpiew are acclaimed throughout the world.

She has a new short story collection TRIPLE SHORTS and a modern novel, MURDER QUADRILLE available for Kindle and download to computers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a rollicking good read, September 4, 2002

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rival Queens: A Novel of Artifice, Gunpowder and Murder in Eighteenth-Century London (Hardcover)

If you're in the mood for a wildly entertaining historical mystery novel, Fidelis Morgan's latest Countess Ashby de la Zouche/Alpiew adventure should more than satisfy. The book possesses a really interesting and engrossing storyline, colourful characters, and is written with a great deal of wit, elegance, and humour.

While chasing down what they hope will be the latest society scandal involving the only daughter of a rich City alderman, the Countess and Alpiew, (the 'scandal' column reporters for the "London Trumpet"), make the acquittance of Colley Cibber (a playwright and actor currently working at Drury Lane). Always on the lookout for publicity for himself, Cibber invites the Countess and Alpiew to a lecture on the Passions. And because the Countess is (again) trying to evade the bailiffs for nonpayment of the Poor Rate (and because Alpiew is truly interested in attending the lecture) the ladies accept Cribber's invitation with some alacrity. The lecture, however, turns out to be instructional in a manner in that neither the Countess nor Alpiew anticipated as they are treated to a very public and bitter squabble between two of Drury Lane's leading actresses: the even tempered and universally adored Anne Lucas and the fiery tempered Rebecca Montagu.

But it is the morning following the lecture that turns out to be the really momentous one for both the Countess and Alpiew. First, they are greeted with the grim news that Anne Lucas has been murdered. Secondly, the Countess gets arrested by the bailiffs for nonpayment of the Poor Rate. And finally, Rebecca Montagu turns up at the Countess's doorstep, intent on hiring both the Countess and Alpiew to discover who Anne Lucas's murderer is and to protect her from her more ardent fans (the 'phanatiques'). Desperate for the money so that she can spring the Countess, Alpiew accepts the case with some reluctance, for she cannot rid herself of the feeling that Rebecca Montagu is not to be trusted. Soon, with the Countess at her side, the duo begins what could be their most frustrating of cases as the most obvious suspect in Anne Lucas's murder seems to be their client (Rebecca Montagu), who seems to be playing a deep game of her own, and who seems intent on making a may game of them. The more they dig, the more evidence they come up with that seems to imply Rebecca's guilt. What are they to do? And more importantly, what will it say of their reputations as private inquiry agents if they come up with the evidence that will send their own client to jail for murder?

"The Rival Queens" proved to be a rollicking fun read. The action never let up, and the plot unfolded at a brisk and smooth pace that had me fairly devouring the bok until I reached the last page! The storyline was a totally engrossing one, and there were enough cunning plot twists and red herring suspects to keep most mystery buffs happy. Best of all was Fidelis Morgan's prose style, which turned out to be witty, hilarious (I esp liked the bits where the Countess would purposely misremember Cibber's name, and address him by a fishy name instead) and very graceful. I really enjoy mystery novels that allows me to appreciate the history and the culture of the period, and "The Rival Queens" fulfilled this requirement admirably. Here's to future Countess Ashby de la Zouch & Alpiew mystery novels!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A few chuckles guaranteed..., July 25, 2010

By 

Blaze - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rival Queens: A Novel of Murder in Eighteenth-Century London (Paperback)

A thoroughly enjoyable mystery filled with bawdy humor, highjinks, silliness, and colorful characters, but alas! - no royalty. The two queens are actually actresses of the London Theatre. When one of them quite literally loses her head, Lady Ashby de la Zouche, a relic of the Restoration Age, and her loyal, quick-thinking maid, Alpiew, are out to solve the crime. I had a few chuckles and cleared off some cobwebs after reading this cozy mystery. A fun read that doesn't take itself too seriously.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars in a word: delightful., February 20, 2004

By 

L.E. Jones Macknin (chicago, il) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rival Queens (A Countess Ashby De La Zouche Mystery) (Hardcover)

in more words: historically accurate (well, as far as i know. she's the restoration actor/writer...), good characters, good plot, never ever ever takes herself or her subject too seriously, great scatalogical detail and a damned fine mystery. i do not often give such accolades and look forward to more such diversions from the entertaining ms. morgan.