The Alice Network

 

By: Kate Quinn
Release Date: June 6th 2017
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Rating: 3 out 5

In 1947, Charlie St. Clair, an unmarried and pregnant American socialite, is on a search to find her missing cousin. So when Charlie’s parents banish her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

There she is introduction to Eve Gardiner, a retirement spy who is train mesmerizing Lili, code name Alice, the “queen of spies”, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy’s nose. Haunted by the betrayal that destroys Alice network. Eva spends her days drunk until Charlie barges in, uttering a name Eve hasn’t heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.

I’m disappointed in myself for not enjoying this more than I did. I did like roughly half of the book and had to force myself not to skim through the other chapters.

Learning about the Alice Network and an amazing piece of history involving female spies intrigued me. These unsung heroes were brave, leading double lives during WWII, aiding their country in uncovering highly classified information. I just wish the story to focus more on Eve’s side of the novel.

The story is told in two separate time-lines from our two main characters’ perspectives, Eve and Charlie bringing the two stories together in the end. Kate Quinn does a fantastic job here with Eve’s character and storyline as her character was fascinating, interesting to read.

Now, from Charlie’s perspective, I didn’t enjoy her storyline as much as Eve did. Her character was highly unlikable and her actions often making me cringe in disgust. She was very selfish and immature, and I couldn’t find even one ounce of sympathy for her. There were a few things about her character and storyline that I wondered why the author included - they seemed unnecessary and took away from the seriousness of the story for me. I grew to dread reading Charlie’s chapters after about the halfway mark. She really took away from my overall enjoyment of this novel.

The ending pulls the two stories together, but I think the story lost all its shine and was a drag after that.