Unnatural Fire.

UNNATURAL FIRE. Fidelis Morgan. 2000/2005. Read by the author. 10 cds. 12.25 hrs. Isis Audio-books. 0-7531-2430-0. $89.95. Vinyl; plot notes. A

This first novel by Fidelis Morgan, British actress and expert on Restoration England, is a bawdy comedy/mystery set in London in 1699. The main character is Lady Anastasia Ashby de la Zouche, Countess of Clapham, former mistress of the late lamented Charles II. With all those titles, you'd expect the 60-year-old sleuth to be rich, but when we meet her she's in debtor's prison. She sells a bit of prison gossip to a local rag and springs herself with the aid of her devoted ex-maidservant Alpiew. The two women decide to fatten the coffers by working as gossip gatherers, but also take a job tailing a husband suspected of adultery.

This complicated romp offers listeners cultural details about science, women's rights, rampaging gangs of youths, the theatre, illiteracy, prostitutes and houses of flogging, lesbians, royalty, castrates, and distilled phosphorus. The author reads the novel herself and gives the amusing story a full-voiced professional turn. She is equally convincing as the upper-class countess, the buxom Alpiew, errant husbands, coppers, con men, college students, and William of Orange. She has as much fun as her audience. Janet Julian, English Teacher, Grafton, MA