The Secret Guests cover art

The Secret Guests

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Secret Guests

By: B. W. Black
Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

It is 1940 and the bombs are falling thick and fast on London. The royal family must do all they can to assure the British public of their solidarity. But what of the two young princesses - Elizabeth and Margaret? How can they be kept safe without jeopardising morale in the capital?

Meanwhile Celia Nashe is delighted when she finally gets her long-awaited transfer to MI5. But whatever she was expecting of her mission for the war effort, it wasn't this. A crumbling castle in remote, rural Ireland, playing nursemaid to two pampered young girls.

But her posting soon turns out to be very far from tame. Questions are being asked by the locals about the identities of Celia's secret charges. And when a dead body turns up at the castle gates, it will take every effort to uncover the truth, and to stop it from coming to light.

©2020 Benjamin Black (P)2020 Penguin Audio 20th Century Espionage Historical Historical Fiction Mystery Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Fiction Royalty War

Listeners also enjoyed...

 A Winter Grave cover art
The Dead Time cover art
The Wild Card cover art
Lestrade and the Sawdust Ring cover art
A Dangerous Act of Kindness cover art
An Air That Kills cover art
A Time to Change cover art
The Flowers of the Field - Part One cover art
The Codebreaker Girls cover art
The Colour of Magic cover art
No Ordinary Killing: An Ingo Finch Mystery Book 1 cover art
The Key in the Lock cover art
All stars
Most relevant
I like this type of "what if...." stories. The Queen and Margaret were portrayed particularly well, but the story could have been better.... but then I am very fussy.

What if......

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Engaging story but the narrator is too ridged. I'm really struggling with the attempted accents.

Poor accents

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed the slow burn of the book, with characters developed just enough to push the story along. I disagree with some critics that suggest the thriller part was too quick and underdeveloped. I thought it was a great contrast to the gentle dance of English and Irish manners that forms the majority of the book

A good read of what might have been

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.