The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

       This smartly written novel which takes place in 1947 and World War I, tells the story of two extremely different women who join together to try to find the childhood cousin and only true friend of Charlie, the  brash pregnant teenager of a moneyed cold family.  Charlie sneaks away from her status-seeking mother during a stopover in Britain in route the to Switzerland in 1947 where her mother was taking Charlie for an abortion.               

           The long lost girlfriend Charlie seeks disappeared in France during Nazi occupation and in an earlier inquiry about the disappearance, Charlie got the address of Eve, a swearing, alcoholic, crone who worked as a spy in France for England during World War I. 

         Charlie hires the verbally abusive Eva and her youngish handsome helper to drive the Lagonda, an old, sleek, antique luxury car, and once they are ferried across the channel the three begin their search in France.  There Charlie seeks information about her missing cousin while Eve is forced to confront the life-long demons that began to haunt her while she was spying in the same locations in France during World War I. 

        The novel becomes a bit of a road trip adventure with unexpected things happening at each stop. It is well written and the interesting personalities of the kept me turning pages to see what happens next, both in Eva’s World War I spying adventures, Charlie’s pregnancy and her search for her missing cousin.

       The Alice Network was just the kind of historical fiction I love to read. It was smartly written, well paced, had intriguing characters, a suspenseful plot, and was well researched in the time and subjects that it told about.  I was sorry when it ended, because I had enjoyed the suspenseful romp. 

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