My last audiobook of 2018.
Historical fiction that makes for very compelling listening. Two parallel stories converge and intersect. Two women who are somewhat unconventional for their time and place, both with personal obstacles, but who have strong drives to fulfill their goals connect.
One of two is Eve Gardiner, a British woman who first becomes a spy as part of the Alice Network (a real-life clandestine organization of women who spied for the British against the Germans) based in Lille, France during World War I. Eve is sent to join a group of women reporting to "Lili", the pseudonym for Louise De Bettignies, the group's leader, a non-fictional character. The spies are seeking information that will aid the British in extricating captured soldiers, and obtaining the secrets of French collaborators working with the Germans. Though she has a speech impediment, Eve also has language facility in French and German. Her spying is successful for a time, but eventually she is caught and punished.
Fast forward to post-World War II. Charlotte "Charlie" St. Clair is a wealthy but bored American college woman who has muddied her reputation while away at college. Her conservative parents whisk her off to Europe where she can have her "problem" solved at a clinic in Switzerland, but their first stop is
London.
Charlie is obsessed with locating her older cousin Rose who was caught up in Occupied France. They lost contact and Charlie is committed to finding out what became of her.
The determined Charlie manages to make contact with the now alcoholic and embittered Eve, whom she believes will have insights on what happened to Rose, and from that point, their stories entwine...
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