👠As you can see from the cover, the secret guests are two teenage girls - the elder is fourteen, the younger ten. The story opens during German Blitz in World War II, and the girls' parents - like many other parents at that time - are arranging to send their children away. At first I didn't realize the girls' identity. Margaret, the younger, is watching night bombing from the window. The mother calls the elder as Lilibeth. Then I thought, oh she's nicknamed just like Queen Elizabeth II. Silly of me of course, because the girls I'm reading are indeed the two royal princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret. This is a historical fiction!
👠The British Royal family evacuated the princesses, not to the countryside, like others, but to the neutral Ireland. They're about to stay at Duke Edenmore's estate, Clonmillis Hall, chaperoned by an English secret agent, Celia Nashe, and accompanied by an Irish detective, St. John Strafford (with an "R"). They were escorted to Clonmillis Hall by a diplomat.
👠First half of the story unfolded at very leisurely pace. We follow the two girls, disguised as Ellen (Elizabeth) and Mary (Margareth), settle into the boredom of rural household - Ellen with her primness indifference, while Mary is in her precocious and inquisitive nature. Celia Nashe and Strafford, on the other hand, started their impromptu cooperation not in a conducive manner.
👠The plot itself doesn't appear until about the second half through. Someone found picture of the royal family in old newspaper, and was able put two and two together. And so, the princesses are now in danger. Could their two rather questionable guards protect them from imminent danger?
👠I was slightly disappointed by the detective and the secret agent. Celia Nashe with the insecurities of a female agent among the male dominant field of job, and Strafford with his bad health - a hindrance against, otherwise, an abled detective - in every critical moment. The fast-paced actions in the last chapters are quite entertaining, though I was a bit daunted by too much murders near the end, especially the last cold-blooded one - is it needed, though?
👠My little disappointment, however, was compensated by Banville's beautiful narration, narrated in equal eloquence by Barrie Kreinik in this audiobook I listened too. It is the writing style rather than the plot that convinced me to read more of St. Strafford series (this book is the first). Hopefully he's getting better next time!
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I have never read this author and this sounds like an interesting book to start with. I wonder, however, if some readers would think it was based on fact? Have you read about the princesses during the war? https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62918601
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