Court of Foxes: A Novel

Christianna Brand

Mar 2013 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

Among the society of London, the unapproachable Marchesa is causing a sensation with her modesty—and planning a devious con—in this historical crime novel.
  The Marchesa goes to the theater accompanied only by her maid. She dresses in pure white, without any jewels or powder to compete with her golden hair and blue eyes. In the London society of King George III, this modesty is enough to cause a sensation. Night after night, every bachelor in London sends her flowers, hoping to win an audience with this mysterious, enigmatic beauty, but none have come close to a seat in her box. None of them guess that the Marchesa wears no jewels because she cannot afford them. None of them know that she is not a Marchesa at all. She is Marigold Brown, a poor girl from Gloucestershire who is about to mount the greatest con London has ever seen—if falling in love doesn’t get in her way.  

About the author

DIVChristianna Brand (1907–1988) was one of the most popular authors of the Golden Age of British mystery writing. Born in Malaya and raised in India, Brand used her experience as a salesgirl as inspiration for her first novel, Death in High Heels (1941), which she based on a fantasy of murdering an irritating coworker. The same year, she debuted her most famous character, Inspector Cockrill, whose adventures she followed until 1957. The film version of the second Cockrill mystery, Green for Danger, is considered one of the best-ever screen adaptations of a classic English mystery. /divDIV /divBrand also found success writing children’s fiction. Her Nurse Matilda series, about a grotesque nanny who tames ill-behaved children, was adapted for the screen in 2005 as Nanny McPhee. Brand received Edgar Award nominations for the short stories “Twist for Twist” and “Poison in the Cup,” as well as a nomination for her nonfiction work Heaven Knows Who.