Customer Reviews

Unnatural Fire --Signed--

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A historical mystery that is a delightful rowdy romp through London in 1699. Not at all the usual 'researched and narrated to the nth degree' slow moving dull historical mystery one finds so often. Countess de la Zouche, bawdy ex-mistress of Charles II, keeps out of debtor's prison by selling naughty gossip tidbits with the aid of her former maid, Alpiew. Their adventures include murder, scandal/mystery involving alchemy, numerous backstreet characters and nobility. Witty and satirical, this book is definitely a fun read.

Fidelis Morgan's UNNATURAL FIRE is an unnaturally enjoyable historical mystery. She blends mystery, comedy, intrigue and a healthy measure of period details of Restoration-era London to whirl the reader back in time. I do sincerely hope she plans to write a long-lived series featuring Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her fiery partner-in-criminal investigation, maid and confidant, Alpiew.

They do make a winning pair!

Hats (or should I say, wigs?) off to Miss Morgan for a finely written and very, very enjoyable "romp" through the back alleys and other unseemly places of ye olde London!!

Out of expedience, two women on the fringes of society in Restoration England become embroiled in a mystery far more complicated than what it first appears. Lady Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche and her trusted servant Alpiew exist from day to day in that part of London where the demimonde earn their living by taking advantage of opportunity. Just released from debtor's prison, the two women have contracted to uncover shocking stories for a scandal sheet, even if they have to fabricate the details. In the context of researching a story, they are hired by a respectable woman to follow her husband, who the wife suspects of infidelity. Not exactly inconspicuous, the two bumbling sleuths eventually witness the husband's brutal murder, although they cannot get a good look at the perpetrator. When the wife herself is accused of murder for hire, Lady Ashby and Alpiew delve into the dark passages of nighttime London, replete with murderers, thieves and cutpurses, on a mission for truth.

The result is a comedy of errors as the aging Countess Ashby exploits her memorable dalliance with the former King Charles II, now deceased. With the buxom and youthful Alpiew as a partner, the two unlikely detectives uncover more fodder for gossip and accusation than anticipated, from secret experiments to an alchemist's laboratory and suspects in high places. The two women are as engaging as they are foolish and impetuous and render the story with a broad wink at the vagaries of human nature. And, of course, in the nick of time, all is made right and fortunes restored. Snappy dialog and quirky characters make this back alley romp a pleasant experience.

I really do hope that "Unnatural Fire" by Fidelis Morgan is the first book in a new series featuring Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche and Alpiew. This book is simply brimming with ingeniousness, vivacious energy and a great deal of humour.

It's 1699 and William of Orange sits on the thrown of England, much to the disgust of Anastasia Ashby de la Zouch, Baroness Penge, Countess of Clapham and one of Charles II's former mistresses. The Countess is down on her luck -- high living, pilfering servants, and a husband who ran off with much of her money, has all but landed her in a near peniless state. Not one to throw her hands up in despair and do nothing, the Countess has tried her hand at various ventures. The current one being journalism. The Countess works as a stringer for Mr. Cue, ferreting out bits of information about the rich and the titled in society, and selling it as gossip to Mr. Cue. However she is 'between engagements' when she is thrown into Fleet Prison for non payment of a debt. Knowing that only she can get herself out of this jam, the Countess ferrets about for some juicy tidbit in order to buy her way out of the Fleet. And indeed she gleefully stumbles onto the sensational news that a very rich man about town has secretly wed an employee of a sex shop. Surely Mr. Cue will pay handsomely for this little tidbit! Unfortunately for the Countess, her former maid, Alpiew, is also in the Fleet, and she has also latched on to the same piece of gossip and successfully uses it to buy her way out of the Fleet.

Alpiew immediately tries to finagle a contract for work from Mr. Cue. But he will only hire her if she has a permanent address. Realising that she needs the Countess, Alpiew strikes a bargain with the Countess: they will work as partners and Alpiew will use their initial earnings to buy the Countess's way out of the Fleet. And so the most unlikely of partnerships begins.

The next day, a mysteriously veiled young woman arrives at the Countess's doorstep. Mr. Cue has recommended them to her as trustworthy agents. The lady wants the Countess and Alpiew to follow her husband, Beau Wilson, and to see what he is up to. She fears that he has a mistress and that he is bankrupting them to fulfill his greedy mistress's rapacious needs. The Countess and Alpiew readily agree to follow Beau about. And their quarry takes them all over London -- through the coffee shops to the halls of academia to the theatre to St. Paul's where it looks as if Beau is finally about to meet his inamorata. However instead of stumbling onto the guilty lovers, the Countess and Alpiew stumble over the dead body of Beau instead! Alpiew successfully takes to her heels, but the Countess is arrested by the watch for the murder. Now Alpiew must somehow unravel what is going on and rescue the Countess before she can be tried and hanged for a crime she did not commit!

"Unnatural Fire" is a well written and researched mystery novel, that vividly evokes London in the 17th century -- scenes and chartacters just seem to come alive before your eyes! The novel is tautly and evenly paced, and I found myself unable to put this book down -- I just had to know what Beau was up to and why he was killed. The unlikely pairing of an aging Countess -- still full of vim and vigour, and her former maid, who while not as outrageous as her former employer, is as resourceful and as adventurous -- is not only brilliant but actually works very well, and is the highlight of this novel. Here are two women who have faced much adversity and hardship, but who refuse to give up without a fight. Their tenacity is awe-inspiring.

This mystery novel is an engaging and riverting read, and well worth the 5 star rating.

I just spent the last few nights reading "Unnatural Fire" and had the best time. It's certainly a page-turner, with the countess a silly old goose who gets smart and her trusty maidservant who is smart, and a pure delight. I'm not an avid reader of mysteries nor novels that are a series but Fedelis Morgan has made me a loyal fan. I've just ordered the next in the series, "The Rival Queens" and can't wait to get it. Morgan lets you prowl the streets of London with all it's odorous scents and you feel the danger lurking on every corner. I enjoyed the exploitive absence of gore most noted in so much of contemporary settings, even though gore was certainly an aspect of centuries past. I just hope the BBC does make this into a film for television and that by the time I finish the second book Morgan will have the third entry in this series ready for publication.

Countess Ashby and Alpiew are an unlikely team. Alpiew is a former employee of the Countess'. Ashby thinks she ran away with her husband, but in reality, Alpiew was just another of the items he stole when he took off for the New World. They meet again in debtor's prison, each vying for a job with a scandal sheet. They end up combining talents and sharing the salary. In the course of their business, they are asked by a Mrs. Wilson to follow her husband. She suspects that he is cheating on her. They lose track of him the first night and witness his murder on the second. The come to discover that he is also an alchemist who will do anything to get the money to continue his research. But how far did he go, and what has he done?

At times the language of another era is somewhat difficult to follow, but usually all is explained soon after. The characters of the aged former royal favourites and their servants are very entertaining, as are the characters themselves. The mystery can be difficult to solve, but all the clues are there if you only look. I am definitely going to read more of this series.

When I bought this book I was in a hurry and only read half of the discription given on the book cover and I didn't know that it was a mystery. I don't generally go for mysteries because I feel the authors pay to much attention to the plot and not the actual characters in the book. But Unnatural Fire is one of the best mysteries I've read in a long time, not only does Fidelis Morgan develope her characters and the whole atmosphere of the time and place this book is set in, but she has such an entanglement of motives and suspects that so much is going on that I found I was rushing through it just to solve the mystery. If you want a book that has a lot to it, and that doesn't lead on who is the actual murderer until the very last chapter, then you should read this book.

In 1699, Countess Ashby de la Zouche reflects on how far she has fallen. Only fifteen years have passed since her lover King Charles II died and now under the Dutch ruler she is doing time in Fleet Prison for owing money to a druggist. The countess realizes her only passage to freedom is selling gossip. She finds a gem with a high society marriage here in the prison. However, her former servant Alpiew, also a resident of Fleet, uses sex to attain the same information, but sells the juicy item to printers Mr. and Mrs. Cue first. Alpiew is freed, but quickly realizes she needs an address if she is to have the gossip reporter job. She returns to buy the Countess' freedom.

The duo agrees to form a partnership of mistrust, as Ashby believes Alpiew stole her husband years ago. Cue sends them a client who hires them to follow her cheating spouse. They trail the merchant Beau Wilson, but someone kills him and the two sleuths begin inquiries into a deadlier game where they can become the victims.

UNNATURAL FIRE is an entertaining historical mystery that is fun to read because of the depth of background material is neatly interwoven into the plot. Readers will love or hate the lead couple, but regardless of that fact, they will remain drawn into following their antics. The support cast provides layers of complexity and the feeling that the audience is watching a late seventeenth century movie unfold due to the richness of the text. Fidelis Morgan has written a ribald historical where any moment this reviewer expects Fielding's Tom Jones to aid the amateur sleuths.

Harriet Klausner

Hilarious mystery! I love pretty much anything having to do with London. This was a great find. Totally worth buying from overseas!

Countess Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche, former mistress to King Charles II but in 1699 now fallen on hard times, links up with her former maidservant, the solid and reliable Alpiew, to offer their services in tracking down the killer of people who have some secret knowledge of alchemy. At times joining them is a friend, the elderly garish Duchess de Pigalle. The trios' pratfalls, tricks, and adventures through London's underground society and surrounding countryside result in a lively, albeit improbable, story.

This is the first of the Countess de la Zouche mystery series. The story is filled with references to London theater pieces, performers, and music, reflecting Morgan's training as an actor and her study of Restoration comedy. Having written a number of nonfiction studies on women from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we also can assume that Morgan has credibly portrayed the manners, dress, and appearance of Countess Ashby and her friends.