SOURCE: "The Sad Later Years of the Woman He Loved," in The New York Times, March 3, 1995, p. C27.

In the review below, Kakutani argues that Blackwood does not stick to the facts in The Last of the Duchess and therefore destroys her credibility.

This fascinating but ultimately disingenuous new book about the Duchess of Windsor is part detective story, part biography, part hatchet job and part comedy of manners. It features characters who seem like exiles from Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a social backdrop reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh and a plot that might have been worthy of Henry James.

The Last of the Duchess begins with an assignment that the journalist and novelist Caroline Blackwood received from The Sunday Times of London in 1980: to write an article about the legendary Duchess of Windsor, the American divorcee Wallis Simpson who won the heart of Edward VIII and cost him the...