Author: Kate Quinn

When the library called to say I had a book in I wasn’t expecting this one; I don’t even remember placing an order for it.

I’ve read other novels about the role women played in spy networks during the first and second world wars. This one focuses on a particular network operating in France during the First World War, and more specifically on three women in that network. The book also follows the search for a missing person after the end of the Second World War. The two plots are interwoven and eventually become a plot for revenge. Although the Alice Network did exist, and several of the characters played parts in the network, most of this story is pure fiction and imagination.

Goodreads Rating * * * *

Author: Graham Greene

I only read this book because of the book “The Unquiet Daughter”. For the first couple of chapters I was trying to match the characters in the novel with the characters in the memoir. It was much more interesting when I gave up on that idea. The book was not really my kind of story – men in Vietnam reporting on war long before war “the” Vietnam War. As for a corresponding match between the two books, I didn’t see it.

Goodreads Rating * * *

Author: Liane Moriarty

Many years ago, in a small community, a young girl is murdered. Throughout the book we see the anguish this has caused her mother and the blame she places on the man (who was then a boy) whom she believes to be the murderer. In that same small town a young mother sails through life with everything neatly planned out for her husband and her three children. And returning to that small community is a young mother who is reeling from devastating news about her beloved husband. The stories connect before many chapters have passed and the reader is torn deciding what to do with the dilemmas that confront the women.

Goodreads Rating * * * *

Author: Danielle Flood

I’m not sure what prompted me to load this book onto my Kindle but I really enjoyed it.

The author spent most of her life trying to identify who her father was; the man she lived with and presumed to be her father turned out not to be. At different times during her life her mother gave her the names of several men who she claimed were the father. After the author’s step-father left the family she became no more than a servant (or slave) to her mother, always wondering why she wasn’t loved and trying to keep her circumstances hidden. As an adult she is able to find her father; it was a long and convoluted path and she had very little time to spend with him before he died.

The author feels very strongly that it is her parents’ story that is told in the book The Quiet American by Graham Greene. You can be sure I’ve added that one to my list.

Goodreads Rating ****