“What did it matter if something scared you, when it simply had to be done?”
Charlie St. Cloud is pregnant in 1947 and the only thing she feels in control of is the search for her cousin, Rose, who disappeared at the end of the war. Eve Gardiner is a former spy and Charlie’s only link to Rose as the signer of her paperwork. The two women couldn’t be more different, but on the search for Rose they find out they have more in common than either could have believed.
I put The Alice Network on my to-read list a few months ago when I saw it in Bookpages. I requested it from my library as an ebook through Overdrive. It took a while for the book to become available and I can see why – it’s an interesting storyline.
When Eve was a spy during the first World War, she worked at a restaurant where German soldiers would come and dine. She pretended not to speak German and her stutter made her seem simple-minded. She could understand them completely and passed the information on through The Alice Network – a spy network made up of mostly women spies. The restaurant owner takes an interest in her and for the sake for information, she starts a relationship with Rene. In Charlie and Eve’s search for Rose, the path starts to lead back to Rene. Will Eve’s quest for revenge get in the way for Rose’s search for information?
Fans of historical fiction will really enjoy this book. It ties together two historical times (WWI and post-WWII) along with a topic that is not often addressed – women spies. The author spends time at the end of the book telling the readers what the true facts of the book are and there are quite a few, including a village in Germany that was massacred and still stands destroyed and empty as a witness. I highly recommend this book to any adult due to war, torture and adult themes.
Have you read any books about women spies? If so, what ones? If not, are you intrigued enough to read one? Comment below!
