This audiobook imagines the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret having been sent to Clonmillis Hall in neutral Ireland during the London Blitz. Narrator Barrie Kreinik tackles this alternative history with admirable skill, giving the girls, “Ellen” and “Mary,” believable voices. Ellen already has the imperial, no-nonsense voice of the future queen, while Mary moves through a range of emotions, always letting her feelings show. Kreinik is also skilled at portraying the many Irish characters with unique voices. The Duke of Edenmore, the unwilling host to the girls, his housekeeper, the kitchen help, and the stable boy also become real individuals. The townspeople, some of whom lost family members to British bullets, display an array of Irish lilts as tensions rise and they voice suspicions about the girls’ true identities. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
"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 novel 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.
"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 novel 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.
The Secret Guests: A Novel
The Secret Guests: A Novel
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Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940171806743 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Macmillan Audio |
| Publication date: | 01/14/2020 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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