The Hidden Palace

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 gorgeous described sense of place. A marvellous adventure’ TRACY REES

‘A richly atmospheric tale of grief, determination and hope’ Woman’s Own

‘True escapism’ Best

Daughters of War hit #5 in the Sunday Times bestselling charts on 26th September 2021.