Seven stars
Eager to take the recommendation of a friend, I reached for this novel by Kate Quinn. While men were dying on the battlefields of both World Wars, there was a significant group of women who were doing their own part to help. Working within the Alice Network, women served as spies to protect the allied forces, obtaining important information and using it to hep advance the cause. Quinn develops a great piece of fiction based on the actual Network, pulling the reader into the middle of the story and leaving many to wonder how far these women would go to eke out a bit of intel to help end the war with a tick in the victory column. Quinn does well to educate and entertain in equal measure.
By 1947, the Second World War was still a recent memory for many, as the chaos was finally dissipating. Charlie St. Clair arrives in Europe, a recent college student and pregnant but unwed. Her scandalous presentation has her about to be tossed out of her family, having shamed them as only Charlie could. She's here on a mission to find her cousin, Rose, who was captured by the Nazis during the war. Charlie will stop at nothing to find Rose and ensure that she is safe. Sent to have her "problem' taken care of, Charlie makes her way to London to look into Rose's disappearance and discovers more than she might have thought at the time.
In 1915, the Great War is in full swing and Eve Gardiner is hoping to make a difference to help against the German behemoth. She gets her chance to help as a spy, hiding in plain sight to get answers to defeat the German juggernaut. Sent to France, Eve trains as a spy with a powerful force, Lili. Together, Eve and Lili will be able to climb behind enemy lines to work in the Alice Network, a strong group that has one mission, to gather intel to help defeat the German powers.
Thirty years after the Great War, Eve is haunted by memories about her time in the Alice Network. Now a drunk and filled with regret, Eve must help a curious Charlie to locate Rose and get to the bottom of what happened. Working together, they begin a search and try to untangle the truth from the many lies the Network as laid out. It will take them both on many scary adventures, but neither Eve nor Charlie are ready to stop until truths are revealed. Quinn does well and keeps the reader hooked until the very end.
Kate Quinn tackles a great deal with this novel, not only exploring a spy network, but lo trying to paint a respectable picture of wartime events during two time periods. Quinn develops a strong narrative to help the reader better understand what's taking place and how things could easily. spin in a number of odd directions. As the story's momentum grows, there is much to be said and done to better understand the situation. Quinn uses strong characters to keep the tension high and the reader is able to see just how action-packed the era could be ad how well women served their country without sitting around in a bakery or tending the children.
The plot points found in the book are both highly entertaining and well-paced to provide a great perspective for the attentive reader. Quinn provides strong points rooted in history and then adds her own spin to keep the twists plentiful, allowing things to grow at exponential speed as the story takes on a life of its own. Quinn mixes history with fiction effectively and leaves the reader guessing what will happen next, keeping the story on edge and the reader wondering what they ought to expect. While I do love a great piece of historical fiction, I am not sure what else to expect from Kate Quinn, or whether I will rush out to find another novel by the author. For now, I was impressed with what I read and hope others can enjoy it as well.
Kudos, Madam Quinn, for breathing some great life into historical fiction.
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