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.
