Secret Kingdom
is the second novel in Francis Bennett's Cold War Trilogy. The first novel was set in 1947, this one at another pivotal moment in the Cold War, the summer and autumn of 1956, in the tense months leading up to the Hungarian uprising.
Bobby Martineau, a member of the British SIS, has been posted to Budapest, from where he reports to London about the growing crisis; to his increasing dismay his warning are ignored. The Hungarians, he knows, are prepared to risk their lives against the Soviet oppressors because they believe the West will support them. But they, and Martineau, reckon without the cynical jockeying for position that is going on in London where whole nations can be sacrificed on the altar of career opportunity. Martineau's dilemma is exacerbated by his deepening relationship with the beautiful Eva, a woman well-known to both Russian and Hungarian security forces, and with plenty of reasons for hating the regime.
'The Cold War here is not just a political but also psychological landscape ... In picking out a personal history from the greater tapestry unfolding in the background Bennett has produced a literary thriller of considerable merit.' Peter Millar,
The Times