The Countess of Prague: Book One

by Stephen Weeks

Overview

SALES HANDLE

Beatrice von Falklenburg, known to her intimates as Trixie, who will lead us from Prague through Europe and occasionally beyond on a ten-book set of investigations that begins in 1904 and finishes in 1914.

KEY SELLING POINTS

• Debut novel
• Historical mystery
• Early 1900s European mystery

AUDIENCE

• Fans of historical mysteries
• Fans of mysteries set in Europe
• Fans of Tasha Alexander, Laurie R. King, Deanna Raybourn, Anne Perry, and Beatriz Williams

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781464208447
Publisher:	Poisoned Pen Press, Inc.
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Series:	Countess of Prague Mysteries Series , #1
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Stephen Weeks is a writer, conservationist, and filmmaker. For thirty years he lived in a twelfth-century castle in Wales, which he restored. For the last fourteen years he has lived in Prague, Czech Republic. His films, as writer/director/producer, include the horror films, I, Monster and Ghost Story . Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (and his own remake of it, Sword of the Valiant ) are Arthurian romances, the latter starring Sir Sean Connery as the Green Knight. His novels include Daniela , a tragic love story set mainly in Prague 1944-’45, and Awakening Avalon , a supernatural thriller. His latest novel is The Nerve Doctor , a bizarre glimpse into the lives of two doctors setting up again in Prague in 1946. His return to making films is marked by The Pain of Mrs. Winterton , set in the last years of British India, and based on his novel to be published in 2017. He is still actively restoring castles in various parts of Europe.

Editorial Reviews

07/03/2017
Beatrice “Trixie” von Falklenburg, the high-born narrator of Weeks’s captivating series launch set in pre-WWI Prague, has a reputation for solving little mysteries—which explains why her beloved Uncle Berty, a retired general, asks for her help in solving what could be a murder case. The body of an elderly man, his face battered beyond recognition, has been hauled out of the Vltava River. A laundry number stitched on the man’s underwear indicates that he is Alois Tager, who served years before as Uncle Berty’s batman in the army. Alois, however, turns out to be alive and well at the Invalides Hospital, where he resides as a pensioner. How did the dead man come to be wearing Alois’s underwear? With the aid of a few trusted servants and a cadre of street urchins, Trixie gets on a trail that leads to some startling revelations about her fellow blue bloods. Weeks (The Nerve Doctor) provides a refreshing glimpse into a time gone by in this well-wrought mix of historical fact and fiction. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Hooray for Countess Trixie! Stephen Weeks has conjured a breath of fresh air with this colorful and memorable character. Fans of Elizabeth Peters will be charmed by the intrepid countess and her cast of valiant helpers. With its exotic setting and the promise of many more adventures to come, THE COUNTESS OF PRAGUE is sure to delight.

Deanna Raybourn, bestselling author of the Veronica Speedwell and Julia Grey mysteries - Deanna Raybourn

"This is a delicious historical mystery about old Europe before World War One. I enjoyed experiencing the social-cultural-political mores of the time as Trixie followed clues from Prague to London and back again. Weeks has created a heady adventure with many unexpected twists and turns along with appealing characters and skillful prose to bring the mysteries to life. I highly recommend this book to any reader who enjoys mysteries and historical fiction."

Midwest Book Review - Laurel Johnson

"Weeks' dramatic talent as writer and filmmaker comes alive in this ferociously readable first of 10 adventures featuring Beatrice von Falklenburg, the Countess of Prague, who thinks of her risk-taking self as Trixie. Highly entertaining, with a compelling mystery and a whirling dervish of a heroine who combines all the best traits of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody and Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher, this wily, witty countess-sleuth's escapades will have readers clamoring for more." (starred review)

Booklist - Jen Baker

Hooray for Countess Trixie! Stephen Weeks has conjured a breath of fresh air with this colorful and memorable character. Fans of Elizabeth Peters will be charmed by the intrepid countess and her cast of valiant helpers. With its exotic setting and the promise of many more adventures to come, THE COUNTESS OF PRAGUE is sure to delight.

bestselling author of the Veronica Speedwell and J Deanna Raybourn

"Hooray for Countess Trixie! Stephen Weeks has conjured a breath of fresh air with this colorful and memorable character. Fans of Elizabeth Peters will be charmed by the intrepid countess and her cast of valiant helpers. With its exotic setting and the promise of many more adventures to come, THE COUNTESS OF PRAGUE is sure to delight."

best-selling author of the Veronica Speedwell and Deanna Raybourn

"...I predict that his clever plots, historical accuracy and descriptive flair will make this series a hit."

Bookreporter - Mark Pendergrast

08/01/2017
Beatrice "Trixie" von Falklenburg is bored. After her father-in-law lost the family estates, she and husband Karel, the Count, can only afford to rent a palace. Karel is always off hunting with friends, so when a soldier's body is recovered from the Vltava River, and Trixie's great uncle, a general, asks for help, she jumps at the chance to play detective. Her investigation into an old man's past exposes her to a world of street urchins, deception, and dangerous train trips across Europe unaccompanied by a lady's maid. Eventually, the fate of Europe could rest in Trixie's attempt to discover why someone wants to interfere in the secret 1904 meeting between Edward VII of England and his nephew Kaiser Wilhelm. Weeks, a Prague-based author (The Nerve Doctor) and filmmaker, introduces a fascinating amateur sleuth in a planned series of ten novels to cover the years 1904–14. Trixie's keen observations reveal class differences and the social and cultural expectations of the time. VERDICT Dry wit, sexual innuendo, and extensive historical references in this atmospheric mystery may appeal to fans of Deanna Raybourn.—LH

Library Journal

2017-06-20
Weeks (Awakening Avalon, 2014, etc.) introduces an intrepid new heroine, Countess Beatrice "Trixie" von Falkenburg, who crosses the Continent to solve a puzzle in her first foray in the demimonde.The Countess of Falkenburg is distracted from society gossip and the woes of the declining aristocracy by a call from her dear Uncle Berty, aka the distinguished Gen. Albrecht Schönburg-Hartenstein. A body washed up in the Vltava River may well be that of Alois Tager, Berty's batman throughout his years in the army, who was supposed to be safely in a home for aged veterans. The possibility of Alois' death occasions not just sentimental sadness for Uncle Berty, but also serious financial risk. Berty and prosperous merchant Isidor Pinkerstein are the last two members of a Tontine, a gambling syndicate based on the life expectancy of the members' chosen proxies, with an enormous reward as the prize to the last survivor. Alois, of course, was Uncle Berty's stand-in, and Berty isn't sure that was really him in the river, so he asks Trixie to investigate—since no one will suspect "a perfectly respectable Countess....It is the perfect disguise." The theater is currently home to the Union of Servants, whose gatherings Trixie infiltrates to find the only thing more scandalous than labor organizing: valets and ladies' maids dressed in swiped finery and aping their betters. Duly energized, Trixie sets out on a mad chase across the railways of Europe, finding another corpse along the way and ending in London. Motley clues lead to an astonishing scheme that threatens the most horrific weapon of war the world has yet seen and puts the very lives of King Edward and Kaiser Wilhelm at risk. The titled heroine is implausible but charming, and the plot is crammed as full of intrigue as a Viennese pastry is of cream. Weeks blends equal parts espionage and farce into a frothy confection that ends perhaps a bit too darkly on intimations of World War I.

Kirkus Reviews