The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

"There are two kinds of flowers when it comes to women. The kind that sit safe in a beautiful vase, or the kind that survive in any conditions...even in evil...Which are you?"

              -Eve to Charlie, from the novel

This is the third novel about the French resistance that I have read in a few months but they have all been different enough to keep my interest. This one was more related to WWI than the other two. I found it very engaging----quite the page-turner especially toward the end. My rating is a 4.

Nineteen-year-old Charlotte "Charlie" St. Claire, with her mother accompanying her, is on her way to Switzerland to have an abortion in 1947.  While they are in Southampton, England awaiting passage to France, Charlie who has been obsessed with finding her missing French cousin, Rose, takes off to London to find a woman named Evelyn Gardiner, who may know something of how Rose disappeared during WWII. This begins a huge adventure as Charlie takes off with the drunken, crotchety ex-spy Evelyn, called Eve, and her driver, Finn, a hot-tempered but charming ex-convict Scotsman, to parts of France searching for Rose. Eventually their quest would include hunting down a cruel man named Rene from Eve's past on whom she has long-dreamed of taking revenge.

In this dual timeline novel, one learns of the Alice Network, a spy-ring of mostly women who worked against the Germans when they occupied northwestern France in WWI (1915-19) including Eve's part in that mission. In the Author's Note, Ms. Quinn tells of the actual women who were a part of the network, like heroine Louise de Bettignies, and distinguishes historical characters from the ones she invented. The second timeline, of course, is a couple of months in 1947, telling Charlie's story. 

I felt the characters were very well-drawn to the point where I could really like them (like Charlie) or purely hate them (like Rene)! All the main characters---Eve, Charlie and Finn---all undergo some personality changes in the course of those two months. The Epilogue then extends the story. 

I got very curious about the car Finn was driving on the road trip, a Lagonda LG6, a British made vehicle I had never heard of. I am attaching a picture. Hopefully the one Charlie, Eve and Finn were riding in was NOT a 2-seater!

This novel is our July selection for Page Turners. We will meet in a couple of weeks to discuss it. More then....

When our group met via Zoom, we had a great discussion. Several of our deeper-thinking members had surprising insights into the events and characters in the story. The discussion varied from emotional damages of war to changes in the roles of women. Most of us had not heard of the massacre at Oradours-sur-Glane. No one disliked the book with ratings of 3-5---an average 4.0. Most agreed the book was very well-written and some said it was hard to put it down. We could agree there were a number of coincidences but found we could "suspend our disbelief" and engage in the plot. It seemed we liked the protagonists but thought Rene Bordelon pretty much got what he deserved, although maybe should have suffered more!

We appreciated the Author's Note where she surprised us with the identity of a few actual historical figures mixed in with her fictional ones. I believe a few of us will look for other novels by this author.