by Kate Quinn
Kate Quinn shows us the hopes and aspirations of women in a culture where they don't measure up while spinning a tale that captures and intrigues in this delightful historical novel.
Set in post-war 1947, Kate Quinn unites Charlie St. Clair, pregnant, unmarried, and unmoored with the aging World War 1 spy and leader of the famed Alice Network, Eve Gardiner. Both women are chasing answers to unsettling mystery. Together they are going to find the truth.
As with most novels, there are insights into the human condition. One of my favorites was Quinn's "instructive childhood" comment about Eve.
She might have learned to put on gentility but she had come from something far less refined. The constant shrieking and throwing of china. Her father roaring at her mother for frittering away money. Her mother sniping at her father for being seen with yet another barmaid. The kind of home where a child learned quickly to slide unseen in and around the edges of rooms, to vanish like a shadow in a black night in the first rumble of a domestic horizon. To listen to everything, weigh everything, all the while remaining unnoticed. Yes, it was a very instructive childhood.
So good. The Alice Network is a tale of self-discovery -- and a very exciting one at that.