The Secret Guests

"When you're done binge-watching The Crown|pick up this multifaceted wartime thriller." —Kirkus Reviews As London endures nightly German bombings|Britain’s secret service whisks the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret from England|seeking safety for the young royals on an old estate in Ireland. Ahead of the German Blitz during World War II|English parents from every social class sent their children to the countryside for safety|displacing more than three million young offspring. In The Secret Guests, the British royal family takes this evacuation a step further|secretly moving the princesses to the estate of the Duke of Edenmore in “neutral” Ireland. A female English secret agent|Miss Celia Nashe|and a young Irish detective|Garda Strafford|are assigned to watch over “Ellen” and “Mary” at Clonmillis Hall. But the Irish stable hand|the housemaid|the formidable housekeeper|the Duke himself|and other Irish townspeople|some of whom lost family to English gunshots during the War of Independence|go freely about their business in and around the great house. Soon suspicions about the guests’ true identities percolate|a dangerous boredom sets in for the princesses|and|within and without Clonmillis acreage|passions as well as stakes rise. Benjamin Black|who has good information that the princesses were indeed in Ireland for a time during the Blitz|draws listeners into a story as fascinating as the nascent career of Miss Nashe|as tender as the homesickness of the sisters|as intriguing as Irish-English relations during WWII|and as suspenseful and ultimately action-packed as war itself.