Review: The Briar Club

Title: The Briar Club

Author: Kate Quinn

Publisher: 18th July 2024 by HarperCollins Australia

Pages: 400 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Mystery

Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

A haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, D.C. boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.

Washington, D.C., 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, 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; police officer’s daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Bea, whose career has ended 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 apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?

My Thoughts

When Kate Quinn has a new book out, you drop everything to read it! You are guaranteed not only a great story (her writing is out of this world) but a brilliant lesson in history as well (her research is second to none). Kate is one of my favourite writers and her latest, The Briar Club is a fascinating look at American society during the McCarthy era of the 1950s.

‘… living in a world where a push of a button could end things in one big mushroom cloud. Hard not to wonder if we took a wrong turn somewhere along the line. If we could have done better.’

This book reads somewhat differently to Kate’s previous ones - and I like it! This is very much a character based story with a murder … or two! The Briar Club is the name given to the female tenants of Briarwood House who come together on Thursday nights to share a meal and so much more. Each woman living at the house is given her own chapter and, being such a diverse group, the insight into being a woman in America at this time is eye opening. It is most definitely a slow burn with even the house being a character and providing its own voice to events. 

‘You couldn't find a more different batch of women than the Briar Club … but after so many suppers together they had somehow acquired a shared funny bone, a way of setting each other off that made the laughter contagious when the right joke caught fire.’

When readers draw near to the end and the women’s lives become enmeshed and the pace really starts to increase. Everything you’ve learned about them as individuals comes crashing together and it is here that one really appreciates Kate’s mastery as an author. Seeing how the women bonded and, individually and together, became a formidable unit. The Briar Club was Kate’s post-pandemic book and as she details in her endnotes it “erupted out of a desperate need for light, for connection, for friendship. A need (like Grace's) to gather round the table, to feed, and to fix.”

‘This is the land of second chances … She might have lost her childhood faith that it was the land of opportunity, but second chances? Yes. Opportunities were things that fell in your lap, but second chances had to be fought for - and you could always reinvent yourself in this country.’

The Briar Club is an exploration of female friendships with the burden of secrets set against the backdrop of the McCarthy era USA. The social pressures faced, particularly by women, are brought vividly to life. A slow burn tale that, under Kate’s deft authorship, comes to a thrilling climax.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

 

Review: The Phoenix Crown

Title: The Phoenix Crown

Author: Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

Publisher: 15th February 2024 by HarperCollins Publishers Australia

Pages: 384 pages

Genre: historical fiction, mystery

My Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

Versailles, 1912. At the height of an intoxicating Paris summer, a mysterious American millionaire attends a sumptuous costume ball with his bride, on whom he has bestowed the legendary Phoenix Crown—a priceless relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace. The party of the century kicks off with three hundred guests, nine hundred bottles of champagne—and one quest for justice that spans two continents and six years.

San Francisco, 1906. In a bustling city of newly minted millionaires and hopeful upstarts, four very different women cross paths: a resourceful Chinatown embroideress desperately searching for her lost love, a silver-voiced soprano who performs alongside Enrico Caruso, a mysteriously disappeared artist, and an independent female botanist obsessed with collecting a rare flower that only blooms at night. One man seemingly holds the key to their questions: Henry Thornton, the charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the Phoenix Crown.

The women’s lives are thrown into chaos when the San Francisco earthquake rips the city apart and Thornton disappears . . . leaving a mystery in his wake that reaches further than anyone could have imagined.

My Thoughts

Anything penned by Kate Quinn is worthy of your attention. On this occasion, The Phoenix Crown has a unique cast of female characters at its heart that is sure to draw readers in. There is an opera singer, a botanist, a painter and a Chinese seamstress who find their lives thrown together and must learn to overcome major obstacles to find justice.

‘Take four women as different as four women could be - an opera singer in her thirties, an emaciated artist from the Bronx, a capable middle-aged scientist, a Chinese seamstress not even twenty.’

This book is of course jointly written with Kate and Janie Chang and I am happy to report that their collaboration is seamless. Although not as rich as I have found Kate’s individual books to be, The Phoenix Crown flowed easily with complimentary writing styles that would make it difficult to pick individual contributions. The book is well researched with focus on topics including opera singing, San Francisco at the turn of the century with a particular focus on the earthquake of 1906. Perhaps the most powerful themes surrounded the treatment of Chinese immigrants and women. The Author’s Notes at the end provided great insight into both their inspiration for the tale and fact versus fiction. 

‘Phoenix Crown. Two words to spark a flurry of telegrams across oceans and continents. Two words to spark frenzied plans, hasty boat tickets, memory-fueled nightmares.’

The Phoenix Crown does a wonderful job of transporting readers to another place and time. It may at times lack the sophistication we have come to expect from Kate alone, however, it does a superb job highlighting a variety of topical issues. If stories of female friendship coming together and supporting one another to undergo self discovery appeals to you then certainly this book is most entertaining. 

“Oh, a phoenix crown … This must’ve belonged to an empress. Or a royal consort.” Only women from the royal family could’ve owned such a headdress. 

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Diamond Eye

Title: The Diamond Eye

Author: Kate Quinn

Publisher: 30th March 2022 by HarperCollins Australia

Pages: 418 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction

My Rating:  4.5 cups

Synopsis:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history's deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story.

In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son--but Hitler's invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper--a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.

Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC--until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila's past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.

Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.

My Thoughts

When Kate Quinn has a new book out, you drop everything to read it! You are guaranteed not only a great story (her historical fiction writing is out of this world) but a brilliant lesson in history as well (her research is second to none). Kate is one of my favourite writers and her latest, The Diamond Eye is the fascinating tale of Mila Pavlichenko’s journey from history student, to mother, to sniper, to national hero.

‘No matter how hard the metal, it yields to human strength. All you have to do is devise the right weapon. I was a weapon.’

The Diamond Eye is everything we lovers of historical fiction look for. There is an amazing story, complex characters, tears of both sorrow and joy all mixed in with suspense and the hardships of war. Anyone who is versed with stories from the Russian front will still be struck by its brutality. The story is told in alternating timelines - Mila before, during and after (befriending Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House) and it had me Googling fact and fiction (always a tremendous indicator of a historical novel). At times Kate gets a bit heavy in some of the details, particularly regarding guns and ammunition but apart from that it was incredible. 

This is a tale that is totally immersive as you lose yourself in Kate’s writing of a Russian female sniper and the heroine she turned out to be. If you love as I do learning about these moments in history, you are sure to love The Diamond Eye detailing the story of ‘Lady Death’. 

‘Lyudmila Pavlichenko; twenty-six years old; fourth-year history 

student at the Kiev State University and senior research assistant at

the Odessa public library - before the war. After the war, thirteen 

months of continuous fighting against Hitler’s forces on the Russian 

front. 

Nickname: Lady Death.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Rose Code

Title: The Rose Code

Author: Kate Quinn

Publisher: 3rd March 2021 by HarperCollins Australia

Pages: 620 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction, world war II

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter--the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger--and their true enemy--closer...

My Thoughts

“It’s the most important commodity of all, isn’t it?” “What, codes?” “What the codes protect: information. Because it doesn’t matter if you’re fighting a war with swords, with bombers, or with sticks and stones - weapons are no good unless you know when and where to aim them.” 

Kate Quinn is an undisputed master storyteller of historical fiction. Her latest offering, The Rose Code, is right up there with her previous reads of The Huntress and The Alice Network.  Her research and attention to detail is phenomenal. Being a time period many authors of historical fiction favour, readers look to be enticed to familiar events through fresh eyes. This Kate does by the bucket load. With many characters based on actual historical figures and with the focus on female codebreakers, this was bound to be a fascinating read.

With two timelines covered - 1940 during the war and 1947 days before Princess Elizabeth’s royal wedding - this book is jam packed with suspense and intrigue that will lead you on an emotional ride.  This is a tale rich in detail of the codebreakers who worked at Bletchley Park as told by three women who became firm friends. Yet it is also a story of each woman’s personal struggles and growth during this demanding period of history. To then skip forward to 1947 and a mystery that brings them back together on the eve of a royal wedding ... well, it is ‘edge of your seat’ stuff. There will be love and loyalties to cheer for, there will be fear and fallouts to tear up for. Towards the end the pace quickens and your reluctance to put the book down heightens as you become so immersed in discovering how things went so horribly wrong. 

This is an incredibly complex and multilayered story that you will lose yourself in. Can the bonds of not just female friendship and understanding but also a fight for justice be enough to lay old grievances down in order to face a new enemy? This is, without doubt, historical fiction at its finest. Kate is an author you read without knowing any other details other than she is the author - you just know it will be that good! Strap yourself in, put the kettle on for your 600+ page immersion into the mystery that surrounds The Rose Code.

‘Where were all those women now? How many men who had fought in the war now sat reading their morning newspapers without realizing the woman sitting across the jam-pots from them had fought, too?  Maybe the ladies of BP hadn’t faced bullets or bombs, but they'd fought - oh, yes, they’d fought. And now they were labeled simply housewives, or schoolteachers, or silly debs, and they probably bit their tongues and hid their wounds ...’   

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.