(More 2.5 stars)

Benjamin Black, aka John Banville

2.5 stars
Although never confirmed, there has been a longstanding rumor that British princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were shipped/dispatched out of England during the blitz of 1940 and sent secretly off to the countryside of Ireland for their own protection.
The Official Story has always been that they were at Windsor Castle, just outside of London.

This book is a fictional account of the rumor, with lots of historical facts about the Blitz mixed into it.

3.5 million children were evacuated from England in Operation Pied Piper during the blitz, 800,000 of them during the first 4 days of the operation.

Imagined history supposing the British princesses were evacuated to Ireland during the Blitz. Told mainly from the perspectives of an Irish detective and a female MI5 agent guarding the pair, with contributions from an impish Princess Margaret who complicates matters. A leisurely tale with a bit of action at the end.

I was fascinated by the blurb but unfortunately the story didn't met my expectations. It's well written but quite slow and I couldn't connect to the characters.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This could be labeled historical fiction, but the plot of the novel is not based on historical facts. Black imagines the two English princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, have been sent to Ireland for the duration of the London blitz. They arrive at the rundown "big house" of a minor Anglo Irish aristocrat. It is an odd choice for their evacuation, but has the advantage of being in the middle of nowhere, and a couple of miles from a small village. However, in Ireland, especially in the 1940's, there were few places that were totally cut off, even in the countryside. Small towns have big eyes and ears, and the British security services who planned this location failed to consider this when sending the princesses here.

The house and its surroundings are bleak, and existence is very boring. Black succeeds in conveying this, but as a result, as a reader, I was bored for the first third or so of the book. I considered DNFing the book, but persevered. The pace and plot picked up, and it became more interesting, with, of course, a climactic ending.

I am rating this three stars which reflects a book that is perfectly fine, but not a compelling read.

Mystery about the evacuation of the British Royal Princesses during WWII to the countryside – and troublesome events that followed. Well written and based, to some degree, on actual events.