Description

The New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye and The Rose Code returns with a haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.

Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss, whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; policeman’s daughter Nora, who finds herself entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Beatrice, whose career has come to an end along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst?

Capturing the paranoia of the McCarthy era and evoking the changing roles for women in postwar America, The Briar Club is an intimate and thrilling novel of secrets and loyalty put to the test.

About the Author

Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of Southern California, she attended Boston University, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in classical voice. A lifelong history buff, she has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga and two books set in the Italian Renaissance before turning to the 20th century with The Alice Network, The Huntress, The Rose Code, and The Diamond Eye. All have been translated into multiple languages. She and her husband now live in California with three black rescue dogs.

Praise For…

“Kate Quinn has excelled in previous novels at transforming real-life historical biography into page-turning fiction. The Diamond Eye—combat novel, wartime love story, assassination thriller—in prose that shifts from lyrical to melodramatic as events demand, sets up and pulls off a double-barreled surprise-ending worthy of its larger-than-life inspiration.” — Wall Street Journal

“Remarkable…Kate Quinn is a master at crafting an intoxicating, well-balanced blend of immersive period details and deft character work. …The Diamond Eye is a remarkable combination of immersive wartime storytelling, rich detailing and wonderful pacing. What really makes The Diamond Eye land, though, goes beyond Quinn’s mastery of her chosen genre. This is, first and foremost, an exceptional character piece, a study of a woman who is a killer, a mother, a lover and, above all else, a survivor.” — BookPage (starred review)

“Quinn (The Rose Code) specializes in centering strong women; each of her books exceeds expectations set by the previous title… Readers looking for a new and unique viewpoint of World War II with a mystery to solve and a light touch of romance will dive deep into this story.” — Library Journal (starred review) on The Diamond Eye

“Kate Quinn amazes me. With each new book she reaches new heights in her craft as a writer of page-turning plots and prose. The Diamond Eye is a remarkable story filled with heart, intrigue, breathtaking drama and, perhaps best of all, meticulously researched details that prove that history provides the absolute best raw material for storytelling. Like her sniper subject Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Kate Quinn has brilliantly hit her mark—this is a stunning novel about a singular historical heroine.”  — Allison Pataki, New York Times bestselling author of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

“Kate Quinn is an excellent storyteller, and she perfectly captures Mila’s spirit and personality both on and off the battlefield… Don’t miss this timely story about the immense power, strength and resilience of a Ukranian woman!” — BookReporter.com on The Diamond Eye