Francis Bennett's first novel, 'Making Enemies', was set in 1947 against a backdrop of the race to the H-bomb. The story in 'Secret Kingdom' takes place in the summer and autumn of 1956, in the tense months leading up to the Hungarian uprising.
Bobby Martineau, the SIS man first encountered in 'Making Enemies', has been posted to Budapest, from where he reports to London about the growing crisis; to his increasing dismay, his warnings 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 Eva, a woman well known to both Russian and Hungarian security forces, and with plenty of reasons for hating the regime . . .
This is not a spy story in the orthodox sense. it is a fascinating, compulsively readable novel of men and women dealing with harsh and extreme circumstances which demand qualities that some of them may not possess.
