Unfortunately, this is one of Shayne's wild premise books. If I could swallow the initial premise, it's a pretty good book. But - look, a bad imposture would be much worse than none (either admit they're gone or pretend they're in hiding - but don't have people obviously pretending to be them!). Given that, the idea that simple physical likeness would make the authorities choose a private security contractor and a - well, barmaid! - who's famous for her rough manners and choice of direct physical action...yeah. No. Not going to happen - I don't care if she's identical. And if it did, for some weird reason, there would have been handlers on them, particularly her, every second of every day. No way would she have read that speech cold. No way would the imposture have continued past that speech! And so on.
So if I could swallow that, the rest isn't bad. Given who and what they are, and their presence at the ball, the subsequent events make some sense. At least, until they walk out into the desert with minimal supplies, no guaranteed backup, and faces that would trigger disaster if the bad guys saw them. The bad-guy leader's preference for the impostors over the real ones is pretty pathetic - so is the portrayal of the real ones. What, they've got _no_ redeeming values? Sheesh.
Well, while I was reading I was carried along and it was a pretty good book. Thinking about it afterwards... no. Just not one of her best. ( )