The Golden Hour

Starred review from May 1, 2019
To a portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, this historical novel adds two grand fictional passions: one beginning in Switzerland in 1900, the other in the Bahamas in 1941, both involving a ginger-haired Brit named Thorpe. The first scene of Williams' (The Summer Wives, 2018, etc.) latest novel introduces the resourceful and wonderfully articulate Lulu Randolph Thorpe, "a pedigree twenty-five-year-old feline, blessed with sleek, dark pelt and composure in spades." A columnist for an American women's magazine stationed in the Bahamas in the early 1940s, Lulu reports on the doings of the former Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson--scrupulously avoiding all mention of the thicket of political corruption and racial tension that surrounds them. But to us, Lulu tells all, going back to how she dispensed with her first husband, the problematic Mr. Randolph, and continuing through her current mission--to spring her second husband, British undercover agent Benedict Thorpe, from a German prison camp. A second narrative set 40 years earlier focuses on Elfriede von Kleist, a new mother from rural Westphalia with postpartum depression so severe she has attempted suicide, causing her husband, the Baron, to dispatch her to a clinic in Switzerland. There she meets a young Londoner named Wilfred Thorpe, interrupting his grand tour of the continent to recover from pneumonia--but never to recover from meeting Elfriede. The portrait of wartime Bermuda and the awful Windsors, observed and reported by Lulu, is original and fascinating. Lulu herself is an excellent creation, tough, smart, sexy, and ruthless. While the secondary Elfriede plot adds interesting complications to the historical puzzle, it doesn't have quite as much verve. A fresh take on the WWII love story, with a narrator who practically demands Myrna Loy come back to life to play her in the movie.

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May 6, 2019
The stories of two remarkable women a generation apart are cleverly intertwined in Williams’s sweeping family saga. In 1941, Lulu Randolph, a 25-year-old widowed American journalist, is in Nassau, Bahamas, to write society articles about the duke and duchess of Windsor, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. The duke—as governor of this island paradise with a dark side—and the duchess are portrayed as sometimes helping, but often contributing to, its problems of social inequality, racial tension, and corruption; they could also be complicit in the murder of gold mine owner Harry Oakes, and there are whispers of their Nazi sympathies. As Lulu’s royal access leads her deeper into Nassau’s shady political world and into a murky letter-passing operation with the duke and duchess, she falls in love with Benedict Thorpe, an English botanist with a mysterious background, who is captured by the Nazis in Europe. In the second story line, set in 1900, young German baroness Elfriede von Kleist suffers from postpartum depression; her sister-in-law banishes her to a Swiss clinic. She falls in love with an English patient, Wilfred Thorpe; their relationship takes many twists and turns as a result of Wilfred’s military career, Elfriede’s husband’s betrayal, and two tragic deaths. Past and present come together when a complicated family history becomes known to all. Williams (The Summer Wives) illuminates the story with exotic locales and bygone ambience, and seduces with the irresistible Windsors. Readers will appreciate the wartime espionage that keeps the suspense high.

May 24, 2019

The newest from Williams (after The Summer Wives) is an epic foray into the world of one of the most enigmatic couples in history, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, as seen through the eyes of a young woman who arrives in the Bahamas in 1941 determined to work her way into their inner circle. When the former King of England and his wife, Wallis Simpson (as was), were exiled to the islands near the start of World War II, there was much speculation about the reasons behind the assignment. Leonora "Lulu" Randolph is a budding journalist with ambitions of exposing nefarious doings by the royal pair, who are known Nazi sympathizers. But instead of unearthing plots and schemes, she is drawn into a far different role--just as she's seduced by the mysterious Benedict Thorpe, who seems to have plans and schemes of his own. Williams weaves Lulu's tale with that of the sad and mysterious Elfriede von Kleist (a secondary character in the author's "Schuyler Sisters" series), whose story starts in Europe in 1900. VERDICT Lulu and Elfriede's stories are built piece by piece, and while the plotting is a bit of a slow burn, Williams's deft hand with characterization and emotionally connective storytelling pays off for readers in big ways. Recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/19.]--Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

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April 1, 2019
When journalist Lulu Randolph arrives in Nassau in 1941 and gains the favor of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, she quickly learns that beneath the surface of the Windsors' court in this tropical paradise?where the duke is serving as governor?lies a quagmire of espionage, scurrilous financial dealings, and possible treason. Lulu also finds herself swept into a romance with the charming Benedict Thorpe, a British scientist who she realizes is involved in dealings considerably more serious than botany, which lead to his mysterious disappearance. Alternating chapters tell the story of Benedict's parents, Elfriede and Wilfred, and their struggle to be together; the depiction of Elfriede's postpartum depression is a particularly refreshing, albeit heart-wrenching, element of their story. With her trademark skill, the author adeptly draws the threads of the two story lines together, culminating in a surprising, emotionally satisfying conclusion. Williams' latest (after The Summer Wives, 2018) is moving, well-researched, and compulsively readable to the very last page.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)