I love reading books by Benjamin Black and John Banville who of course is the same person. I think this is my ninth book by him that I've read.
I had been reading of lot of Irish crime novels recently from several authors that have mostly taken place in Belfast during the Irish Troubles. This book fit right in although it takes place a few years earlier in the Irish Republic rather than Northern Ireland. It was a very entertaining work of historical fiction.
This story is based on incidents that take place during World War II and concerns the hiding of the British royal princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in neutral Ireland during the London bombing blitz. It seemed like something right out of The Crown TV show. This was a time when children from every English social class were being sent to the countryside for their safety.
The girls are hidden on a rural Irish estate and an Irish detective and English secret agent are charged with protecting them not only from German spies but also the IRA who slip in from Belfast. This was a well written and wonderfully entertaining novel. The author has a way with the peculiar class and social mores of Great Britain.
I gave this book five stars in Goodreads.
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