The Alice Network

I really enjoyed The Alice Network by Kate Quinn and have already recommended it to others.  It's nice to come across a book like that! I wish that I had known the back story before I read it though.  If you are like me, read the author's note at the end of the book for the back story.

This story takes place in two different time periods. Each chapter alternates time periods and/or the two main characters. 

The story began with Charlie in 1947.  Charlotte St. Clair was a pregnant, unmarried college girl from New York who was going to Switzerland with her mother to take care of her "little problem".  However, Charlie had a different agenda, which was to try to find her cousin Rose who the family had lost contact with during the war.  Rose had lived in France and Charlie, along with her family, visited Rose's family every summer. However, during the war Rose disappeared in France which was Nazi occupied at the time.  Charlie had done some research before leaving the US and had a name of a woman who may have known something about what happened to Rose.

That woman was Evelyn Gardiner, an English woman living in London.  In 1915, Eve wanted to fight the Germans and was recruited to become a spy.  She joined the "Alice Network" working in enemy-occupied France.  Eve was given a new name, and worked under "Lili" who was considered the "queen of spies". Eve began working in a restaurant in a small town where the German soldiers gathered and there she began gathering information to pass on to Lili.

By the time Charlie finds Eve, she was living alone, isolated and drinking all the time.  But Charlie mentioned a name and unbeknownst to her, it was the same person that Eve wanted revenge on from thirty years ago.

It's a fascinating story and did not end predictably.  I was kind of hoping for a different ending and I was wrong, but not necessarily disappointed.  The actual ending of the story was probably more realistic than where my guess had gone.  Okay, not probably.

As I said at the beginning, be sure to read the author's note at the end of the book.  Very interesting story.