Eve’s job was to infiltrate a restaurant in Lille called Le Lethe, whose owner was named René Bordelon. Each town they visit triggers one of Eve’s memories of World War I, when she was an agent with a spy ring called the Alice Network. Eve doesn’t initially tell Charlie her motive for becoming interested in the case but agrees to help for a fee.Įve’s hired man, Finn, owns a Lagonda, which the two women commandeer for their journey across France in search of Rose.

A broken survivor of World War I, Eve has no intention of helping Charlie until she learns that Rose once worked in Limoges at a café called Le Lethe for a man named Monsieur René. When her boat docks in England, she makes a detour to London to seek the aid of Eve Gardiner in finding her lost cousin, Rose. Clair is on her way to have an abortion in Switzerland. The odd pairing of a pregnant 19-year-old and an abrasive, drunken crone explores the themes of broken lives, guilt and redemption, and what it means to be a warrior woman. Eve is a battle-scarred World War I spy who has no interest in helping Charlie until she realizes that her own hunt for a French collaborator and Charlie’s hunt for her cousin may lead to the same man. Charlie enlists the aid of Eve because the latter worked in a government bureau and handled Rose’s emigration paperwork in 1945. The book centers on the search for Charlie’s missing French cousin, Rose. Eve’s chapters span the period between May 1915 and March 1919, with an Epilogue set in Summer 1949. Eve’s chapters are told from the perspective of a limited third-person narrator. Charlie’s chapters are narrated in first person and cover the months of May and June 1947. Clair and 22-year-old Evelyn “Eve” Gardiner. Chapters alternate between the points of view of 19-year-old Charlotte “Charlie” St. The Alice Network is told from the perspective of two characters in various English and French locations during two distinct time periods.

Book review the alice network