The Huntress by Kate Quinn

The core of the plot of this book is a woman who was accused of committing unspeakable war crimes against children in Poland during World War II. The novel begins with this unnamed woman  called The Huntress on the run, afraid that her past has finally caught up with her.

 From there, the novel breaks into three story lines, told by three narrators, in alternating timelines.

The most vivid of these threads begins before the war and centers on Nina Markova, one of the famed Russian bomber pilots known as the Night Witches.  The backstory of this smart, ferocious, unconventional female character is perhaps not characteristic of the squadron, but it may be representative — she was a girl growing up dirt-poor in a nearly savage family on the ice-cold banks of a lake in the farthest reaches of Siberia. In many ways, she was a feral child, learning the harsh lessons of life and survival on her own. After a dark and tragic childhood, Nina finds peace in the air and purpose in fighting. For the first time in her life, she is a part of something that matters to her. But it is after her stint with the Night Witches, when she is struggling to survive in war-torn Poland, that she comes face to face with the female Nazi known as the Huntress.  The search takes them to 1950's Boston, where the rest of the story unfolds.  Interesting and while fiction, is steeped in true stories from the past.