The Alice Network
2017 historical novel by Kate Quinn
The Alice Network is a 2017 historical novel by American author Kate Quinn. It was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.
The story is based on the real-life World War I spy ring called the Alice Network, which operated in German-occupied France and Belgium. Three historical figures are used as characters in the novel:
Louise de Bettignies, the ring leader (code name Alice Dubois, called Lili in the book);
Léonie van Houtte, her lieutenant (code name Violette Lameron in the book); and
Cecil Aylmer Cameron, a British Intelligence officer (called Captain Cameron and Uncle Edward in the book), who recruited both women.
The novel uses a dual narrative approach, alternating between events that occurred beginning in 1915 and in 1947. The 1915 story involves a fictional character named Eve Gardiner (code name Marguerite Le François), who was selected by Captain Cameron to join the Alice Network in Lille, France, under the direction of Lili.
The primary character in the 1947 story is the fictional American college student Charlotte (Charlie) St. Clair. Charlie finds Eve in England and enlists her help to find Rose Fournier, Charlie's French cousin who went missing during World War II. In the end, Eve and Charlie find that they both have reason to hunt down a certain restaurant owner, profiteer and collaborator named René.
Plot
The narrative starts in 1947.
“The Alice Network” enters the record as 2017 historical novel by Kate Quinn. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Alice, Network and historical can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“The Alice Network” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Alice, Network and historical provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q102036076. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2017, 1915 and 1947.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Alice Network” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.