The Alice Network - Kate Quinn

This intriguing novel is based on an actual spy ring that operated in World War I. The real-life Louise de Bettignies, alias Alice, was the brilliant leader of The Alice Network, a very effective group of espionage agents in France who spied on the Germans. Although Louise is an important character in the novel the central characters are the fictional Eve and Charlotte, aka Charlie. In 1947, Eve is a bitter, foul-mouthed alcoholic who had been a spy in both the WWI Alice Network and in WWII. Charlie is a 19-year-old American who is desperately trying to find her cousin Rose who went missing in 1944, presumably while working for the French Resistance. Charlie enlists Eve’s help in finding Rose. Eve’s ulterior motive is to find Rene, a French profiteer Eve spied on during the first World War. Will Charlie find Rose and fulfill their dream of owning a café together? Will Eve find Rene and seek revenge? While the readers follow the 1947 search, we are also told the story of how young, innocent Eve becomes such a wretched character while serving in The Alice Network in 1915. The story kept my interest throughout with exciting plot turns and compelling characters. I have to say that the fictional Rene is one of the creepiest, sleaziest villains I’ve read in a novel in a long time! Author Kate Quinn’s depiction of wartime deprivation and resistance reminded me of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale and Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See although Quinn’s novel is not as lyrical as Doerr’s. I appreciated Quinn’s notes at the end of the book about the real Alice Network. I recommend this very readable novel to fans of historical fiction.