There's a dead body on the Common, so what else can you talk about over dinner? But for a husband and wife whose marriage is on the rocks, their bank manager, their lawyer and his bimbo girlfriend, is it a safe conversation to have, particularly when a writer of lurid crime fiction is also there to make up the numbers? There's a very sharp knife about the place too. And whatever did happen to the missing librarian?A mystery novel which reads like a Hitchcock movie.'Creepy yet hilarious, filled with startling twists and thrills, this one had me laughing even as I was feverishly turning the pages. Only Fidelis Morgan can pull off a caper with such wit and style!' - Tess Gerritsen

Fourth in Fidelis Morgan's hugely entertaining series featuring the irrepressible Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her stupendously bosomed former maid, AlpiewUnlikely 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.'Morgan's novels are a hoot, and packed to the hilt...

"A third irrepressible outing for the ebullient Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her awesomely bosomed maid, Alpiew, a pair of Restoration detectives dubbed Cagney and Lacey in corsets, although I'd add a strong dash of Laurel and Hardy to the mix. ...Plots within plots, culinary eccentricities, the Bastille's most mysterious prisoner and the discovery of Lord Whippingham's favourite depravity, involving women with strong teeth, pepper the uproarious progress of our two unconventional heroines. Fun never came so lusty." The Guardian

Nominated for the "FUNNIEST BOOK OF THE YEAR" Lefty Award at Left Coast Crime 2003London 1699. Those intrepid and impecunious heroines the Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her maidservant Alpiew are once more scavenging for scandal to entertain the readers of that scurrilous rag, the London Trumpet. With the bailiffs as ever in hot pursuit, the Countess and Alpiew are reduced to seeking refuge in a philosophical lecture at the York Buildings concert hall. But their expectations of a dull evening are confounded when one of the players staggers on to the stage, her hands dripping with blood. A doyenne has been decapitated under their very noses.The unlikely sleuths find themselves with an abundance of suspects: players, phanatiques, punks, pink ribbons, a Punch and Judy man - not to mention a painter with a silver proboscis. Determined to leave no stone unturned, they pursue their quarry from the Tower of London to Bedlam, with a brief detour to the wilds of Wapping....

"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. This is a frolicking good read." Daily Mail

There's a dead body on the Common, so what else can you talk about over dinner? But for a husband and wife whose marriage is on the rocks, their bank manager, their lawyer and his bimbo girlfriend, is it a safe conversation to have, particularly when a writer of lurid crime fiction is also there to make up the numbers? There's a very sharp knife about the place too. And whatever did happen to the missing librarian?A mystery novel which reads like a Hitchcock movie.'Creepy yet hilarious, filled with startling twists and thrills, this one had me laughing even as I was feverishly turning the pages. Only Fidelis Morgan can pull off a caper with such wit and style!' - Tess Gerritsen