The Hidden Palace (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780008544652)

A rebellious daughter
1925. Among the ancient honey-coloured walls of the tiny island of Malta, strangers slip into the shadows and anyone can buy a new name. Rosalie Delacroix flees Paris for a dancer's job in the bohemian clubs deep in its winding streets.

A sister with a secret
1944. Running from the brutality of war in France, Florence Baudin faces a new life. But her estranged mother makes a desperate request: to find her vanished sister, who went missing years before.

A rift over generations
Betrayals and secrets, lies and silence hang between the sisters. A faded last letter from Rosalie is Florence's only clue, the war an immovable barrier - and time is running out...

"Completely swept me away to another place and time. Dinah is the queen of sumptuous settings, transporting the reader effortlessly from chocolate-box Devonshire to the cabaret clubs of 1920s Paris and war-torn Malta. A marvellous, multi-layered story, populated with characters to really care for"--HAZEL GAYNOR

"Dinah Jefferies wields her storytelling magic on the island of Malta . . . It's engrossing and sensual, full of the heat of the Mediterranean sun"--GILL PAUL

"Powerful, passionate and profoundly moving . . . this compelling mix of love and tragedy vibrates with warmth and pain, and captures the intense dislocation of war"--KATE FURNIVALL

"Sweeping and sumptuous with a gorgeously described sense of place. A marvellous adventure"--TRACY REES

"A wonderfully evocative and sensual writer"--SANTA MONTEFIORE

"A warm and engrossing tale of passion and courage. I loved it"--RACHEL HORE

"Love, grief, abandonment, betrayal and secrets ... I adored it"--LIZ NUGENT