Princess Diana still intrigues us 14 years after her fatal car crash in Paris, but what if she faked her death to live incognito in America? Monica Ali (author of the award-winning Brick Lane) posits this idea in Untold Story, which presents a Fringe-like alternate reality version of the Princess of Wales and her escape from the paparazzi glare. With the help of her faithful secretary, Lawrence, the princess has plastic surgery, moves to middle-America and becomes Lydia. She lives quietly in a gated community, hangs out with her girlfriends, worries about getting too involved with a lover, and volunteers at an animal shelter. But she's haunted by the realization that she'll never see her children again and that Lawrence, her last link to her old life, is dying of cancer. Then, one of the photographers that relentlessly stalked the princess sees a photo of Lydia and begins to suspect the most famous woman in the world might not be dead after all.

Untold Story requires a giant suspension of disbelief, but Ali's writing and the narration by noted English actors Emma Fielding and Nicholas Farrell help immensely. Fielding's regal voice is perfect for Lydia's inner dialogue, but her American accent is flat, which means Lydia's gal pals all sound the same – a bit nasally and unintentionally stoned. She can't quite lose her British accent. Farrell's reading of Lawrence is the real standout here. His affection and concern for the princess comes through in every rise and fall of Farrell's classically trained voice. While he's facing his own mortality, his thoughts continually wander back to Lydia, and his recollections of helping her escape to her new life are absolutely riveting.

Once the photographer, John "Grabber" Grabowski, figures out who Lydia is, the novel turns quasi-chase thriller, but it's Lydia's letters to Lawrence and his diary entries about how he helped the princess become Lydia that are the heart of this novel. Fielding's melancholy voice as Lydia writes to Lawrence, agonizing over her decision to disappear, are quite moving. Monica Ali has created a novel that is impossible to categorize – it's by turns a mystery, thriller, fantasy, and improbable revisionist history. For a few hours, Ali, through Fielding and Farrell, will have you convinced that the impossible is possible and that the Princess of Wales is still among us. —Collin Kelley