The Lost Girls of Paris

The Lost Girls of Paris
By Pam Jenoff
Park Row Books, 2019. 377 pgs. Historical Fiction

Grace Healey is late for work and rushing through Grand Central Terminal when she finds an abandoned suitcase. On a whim she opens it and takes a dozen photographs of different women that she finds inside. She feels bad and tries to return them later but discovers the suitcase is gone and it belonged to a woman that was killed by a car that morning. The woman is Eleanor Trigg and she was a leader of a network of female secret agents who were deployed into occupied France during WWII. Grace feels drawn to discover who these women were and why their pictures were in Eleanor's suitcase. The novel alternates between telling Grace's story and going back in history to tell of one of these spies named Marie. Marie was a single mother who wanted to help with the war effort. Her daring mission reveals a story of friendship, survival and betrayal.

This book is inspired by true events and was a fascinating look at an aspect of WWII I wasn't familiar with. I loved getting to know Grace, Eleanor and Marie better through their stories. Each character was lost in some way and trying to make sense of life. I enjoyed this historical fiction novel and would recommend it to those who enjoyed The Nightingale or The Mistress of the Ritz.

AL