The Golden Hour

by Beatriz Williams Narrated by Cassandra Campbell, Saskia Maarleveld

Overview

The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives and A Certain Age creates a dazzling epic of World War II-era Nassau-a hotbed of spies, traitors, and the most infamous couple of the age, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The Bahamas, 1941. Newly-widowed Leonora “Lulu” Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the Governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires?

Or so Lulu imagines. But as she infiltrates the Duke and Duchess's social circle, and the powerful cabal that controls the islands' political and financial affairs, she uncovers evidence that beneath the glister of Wallis and Edward's marriage lies an ugly-and even treasonous-reality. In fact, Windsor-era Nassau seethes with spies, financial swindles, and racial tension, and in the middle of it all stands Benedict Thorpe: a scientist of tremendous charm and murky national loyalties. Inevitably, the willful and wounded Lulu falls in love.

Then Nassau's wealthiest man is murdered in one of the most notorious cases of the century, and the resulting coverup reeks of royal privilege. Benedict Thorpe disappears without a trace, and Lulu embarks on a journey to London and beyond to unpick Thorpe's complicated family history: a fateful love affair, a wartime tragedy, and a mother from whom all joy is stolen.

The stories of two unforgettable women thread together in this extraordinary epic of espionage, sacrifice, human love, and human courage, set against a shocking true crime...and the rise and fall of a legendary royal couple.

This audiobook includes an episode of the Book Club Girl Podcast, featuring an interview with Beatriz Williams about The Golden Hour.

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile

Cassandra Campbell and Saskia Maarleveld share narrating duties for the newest Beatriz Williams historical novel, which involves the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s stay in the Bahamas during WWII. The story jumps between three time periods, and although Campbell and Maarleveld both narrate capably, the frequent shifts are confusing. Campbell jauntily portrays Lulu Randolph, an aspiring young writer for a society magazine who arrives in the Bahamas to describe the glamour of the Windsors’ lifestyle. When Nassau’s richest resident is murdered, Lulu—rendered by Campbell as something of a Noir dame—pursues answers. In a European accent, Maarleveld also delivers the the account of a Swiss woman named Elfride, following her from 1900 through WWI, and recounting the lives of her descendants. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

05/06/2019

The stories of two remarkable women a generation apart are cleverly intertwined in Williams’s sweeping family saga. In 1941, Lulu Randolph, a 25-year-old widowed American journalist, is in Nassau, Bahamas, to write society articles about the duke and duchess of Windsor, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. The duke—as governor of this island paradise with a dark side—and the duchess are portrayed as sometimes helping, but often contributing to, its problems of social inequality, racial tension, and corruption; they could also be complicit in the murder of gold mine owner Harry Oakes, and there are whispers of their Nazi sympathies. As Lulu’s royal access leads her deeper into Nassau’s shady political world and into a murky letter-passing operation with the duke and duchess, she falls in love with Benedict Thorpe, an English botanist with a mysterious background, who is captured by the Nazis in Europe. In the second story line, set in 1900, young German baroness Elfriede von Kleist suffers from postpartum depression; her sister-in-law banishes her to a Swiss clinic. She falls in love with an English patient, Wilfred Thorpe; their relationship takes many twists and turns as a result of Wilfred’s military career, Elfriede’s husband’s betrayal, and two tragic deaths. Past and present come together when a complicated family history becomes known to all. Williams (The Summer Wives) illuminates the story with exotic locales and bygone ambience, and seduces with the irresistible Windsors. Readers will appreciate the wartime espionage that keeps the suspense high. (July)

From the Publisher

The Golden Hour is pure golden delight Beatriz Williams is at the top of her game.” — Kate Quinn, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Alice Network

“Original and fascinating. Lulu herself is an excellent creation, tough, smart, sexy, and ruthless… A fresh take on the WWII love story, with a narrator who practically demands Myrna Loy come back to life to play her in the movie.” — Kirkus (starred review)

“Bestselling author Beatriz Williams skillfully sets a story of love and sacrifice against the backdrop of war in her fascinating new novel… Readers will be spellbound by Williams’ elegant prose, fascinating characters and unforgettable settings while fully engrossed by the novel’s dual plots.” — Bookpage

“The stories of two remarkable women a generation apart are cleverly entwined in Williams’s sweeping family saga… Williams illuminates the story with exotic locales and bygone ambiance, and seduces with the irresistible Windsors. Readers will appreciate the wartime espionage that keeps the suspense high.” — Publishers Weekly

“Beatriz Williams always delivers historical fiction that shines, and this summer’s release is no exception… The Golden Hour is another engrossing read that will keep you turning the pages long into the night.” — Popsugar

“A shocking death under the Caribbean sun. A cover-up with a whiff of royal privilege. Williams mixes those ingredients with spies, swindles, love affairs—plus a dash of racial animosity—and the result is a zesty romantic cocktail.” — Bloomberg

“With her trademark skill, the author adeptly draws the threads of the two story lines together, culminating in a surprising, emotionally satisfying conclusion. Williams’ latest is moving, well-researched, and compulsively readable to the very last page.” — Booklist

Booklist

With her trademark skill, the author adeptly draws the threads of the two story lines together, culminating in a surprising, emotionally satisfying conclusion. Williams’ latest is moving, well-researched, and compulsively readable to the very last page.

Popsugar

Beatriz Williams always delivers historical fiction that shines, and this summer’s release is no exception… The Golden Hour is another engrossing read that will keep you turning the pages long into the night.

Bloomberg

A shocking death under the Caribbean sun. A cover-up with a whiff of royal privilege. Williams mixes those ingredients with spies, swindles, love affairs—plus a dash of racial animosity—and the result is a zesty romantic cocktail.

Bookpage

Bestselling author Beatriz Williams skillfully sets a story of love and sacrifice against the backdrop of war in her fascinating new novel… Readers will be spellbound by Williams’ elegant prose, fascinating characters and unforgettable settings while fully engrossed by the novel’s dual plots.

Kate Quinn

The Golden Hour is pure golden delight Beatriz Williams is at the top of her game.

Booklist

With her trademark skill, the author adeptly draws the threads of the two story lines together, culminating in a surprising, emotionally satisfying conclusion. Williams’ latest is moving, well-researched, and compulsively readable to the very last page.

SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile

Cassandra Campbell and Saskia Maarleveld share narrating duties for the newest Beatriz Williams historical novel, which involves the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s stay in the Bahamas during WWII. The story jumps between three time periods, and although Campbell and Maarleveld both narrate capably, the frequent shifts are confusing. Campbell jauntily portrays Lulu Randolph, an aspiring young writer for a society magazine who arrives in the Bahamas to describe the glamour of the Windsors’ lifestyle. When Nassau’s richest resident is murdered, Lulu—rendered by Campbell as something of a Noir dame—pursues answers. In a European accent, Maarleveld also delivers the the account of a Swiss woman named Elfride, following her from 1900 through WWI, and recounting the lives of her descendants. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2019-04-14
To a portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, this historical novel adds two grand fictional passions: one beginning in Switzerland in 1900, the other in the Bahamas in 1941, both involving a ginger-haired Brit named Thorpe.

The first scene of Williams' (The Summer Wives, 2018, etc.) latest novel introduces the resourceful and wonderfully articulate Lulu Randolph Thorpe, "a pedigree twenty-five-year-old feline, blessed with sleek, dark pelt and composure in spades." A columnist for an American women's magazine stationed in the Bahamas in the early 1940s, Lulu reports on the doings of the former Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson—scrupulously avoiding all mention of the thicket of political corruption and racial tension that surrounds them. But to us, Lulu tells all, going back to how she dispensed with her first husband, the problematic Mr. Randolph, and continuing through her current mission—to spring her second husband, British undercover agent Benedict Thorpe, from a German prison camp. A second narrative set 40 years earlier focuses on Elfriede von Kleist, a new mother from rural Westphalia with postpartum depression so severe she has attempted suicide, causing her husband, the Baron, to dispatch her to a clinic in Switzerland. There she meets a young Londoner named Wilfred Thorpe, interrupting his grand tour of the continent to recover from pneumonia—but never to recover from meeting Elfriede. The portrait of wartime Bermuda and the awful Windsors, observed and reported by Lulu, is original and fascinating. Lulu herself is an excellent creation, tough, smart, sexy, and ruthless. While the secondary Elfriede plot adds interesting complications to the historical puzzle, it doesn't have quite as much verve.

A fresh take on the WWII love story, with a narrator who practically demands Myrna Loy come back to life to play her in the movie.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170008353
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/09/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos