About this item
Beatrix von Falklenburg, the childless wife of an impoverished and, it must be said, neglectful, Count, was living the life of a Prague socialite when a murder involving her elderly uncle pulled her into the orbit of Edward VII of England and the German Kaiser. And into that of a Prague police inspector, as well as into a deeper interaction with her unflappable butler, Mller, and her lady's maid, Sabine. All of which is recounted in The Countess of Prague.Her role in that 1904 investigation has brought her to the attention of the Hapsburg Emperor Franz Josef I, who has her summoned to his palace in Vienna. There he tasks her with probing the "murder/suicide" in 1889 at Crown Prince Rudolf's hunting lodge at Mayerling and looking for possible papers that might contain revealing information or evidence of what happened there.
About the Author
Stephen Weeks is a writer, conservationist and film-maker. For 30 years he lived in a 12th century castle in Wales, which he restored. For the last 10 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. His novels include Daniela - a tragic love story set mainly in Prague 1944-45, and The Countess of Prague detective novels, the second of which, Sins of the Father, has recently been completed. 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. It is also to be published as a novel. He is still active restoring castles in various parts of Europe. Awakening Avalon concerns many of the continuing threads of his own life, especially the relationship between past and present ... February 2014
