Angela's Reviews > The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre

The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre by Natasha Lester

Synopsis /

1943 . After spearheading several successful advertising campaigns in New York, PR wizard Alix St Pierre finds herself recruited into a fledgling intelligence organisation by the US government. Alix is sent to Europe where she is tasked with getting close to a Nazi who might be willing to help the Allied forces - but there's also the chance he might be a double agent.

1946 . Following the war, Alix moves to Paris to run the Service de la Presse for the yet-to-be-launched House of Christian Dior. But when a figure from the war reappears and threatens to destroy her future, Alix realises that only she can right the wrongs of the past and bring him to justice.


My Thoughts /

There's a reason why I keep including historical fiction novels into my reading lists. Tales of strength, resilience, passion, freedom, oppression, injustice and persecution. To fight the good fight for righteousness to conquer over evil. The dogged determination and unyielding spirit of these fictional characters which keeps hope alive in our hearts.

The story opens in Paris at the end of 1946 —

This is my zero hour.
Ten minutes pass.
It is up to me to give the signal to open the doors.
The show is about to begin.
— Christian Dior

A highly independent and driven woman, Alix St Pierre is striving to make a new life for herself when she takes a job as publicist working for the Dior Fashion House, under a man named Christian Dior. A fresh start to a life she hopes which might be free of the nightmares of WWII. Was that asking too much?

Author, Natasha Lester has written this novel following two distinct timelines. Paris 1947 and Bern, Switzerland from 1942 through to 1945. In the earlier timeline, a young Alix St Pierre worked on the staff of Harper’s Bazaar, which we learn was just a cover story, as she was secretly working for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) helping run a resistance network.

There was one brief and shining moment, wasn’t there, when it looked like the world would change. For four years we spied and we worked damn hard and we saved people’s lives and we made a difference and nobody cared too much that we were women. And then it all ended. Went backwards, even.

In the later timeline she is, of course, haunted by the things she did and saw and the deaths she bore witness to (and may even have contributed to) during the war. A mostly character driven novel, Alix is a very strong protagonist and without her the story would have collapsed as quickly as an undercooked soufflé. Though not wholly central to the story, Lester also brings romance into the mix. This, I could have done without as it didn't bring anything substantial to the story, unless you enjoy reading one woman's ruminations over a 'manly form' and then berating herself for doing so.

While coming in at nearly 500 pages in length, my thoughts are that it was a 300-pageworthy story. I found my interest waning a little. I am definitely Team Short and Sweet, or maybe that should be Team No Waffling.

Now while the prose is smooth and elegant, and the characters are, for the most part, well-written, the plot of this novel didn't (unfortunately) bring anything new to the table.

In summary, let me say, that after reading The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre…..I think one life would have been sufficient.