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: A Shadow at the Door

Title: A Shadow at the Door

Author: Jo Dixon

Publisher: 3rd January 2024 by Harlequin Australia, HQ  & MIRA

Pages: 400 pages

Genre: crime, mystery, thriller

My Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

From the bestselling author of The House of Now and Then comes a vividly portrayed story that reveals the darkness of greed and desire where people will stop at nothing to get what they want. No matter the cost ...

After a brutal attack and the breakdown of her marriage, life has taught former TV star Remi Lucan that it's safer to not rely on anyone. Instead, she's buried herself in Hobart, transforming her dilapidated sandstone house back to its former splendour, and it has been her proudest achievement. Better than her short-lived acting career. Definitely better than being a smile-on-command trophy wife. But when she runs out of money, her wealthy ex-husband tries to force the sale of the property and Remi realises her only option is to lower her defences and take in tenants. At first her biggest problem is adjusting to the intrusion of two unlikely housemates, but when a series of 'accidents' turns ugly, it becomes clear these incidents are more than pranks. Someone is out to get Remi, and they won't stop until they destroy her...

My Thoughts

Atmospheric Tasmania provides the perfect setting for this engrossing psychological thriller. Herein, Jo Dixon provides strong characters that readers will become invested in and find themselves eagerly turning the pages. This is a quick and wonderfully escapist read. 

‘Her beautiful home was also her sanctuary. She wasn’t leaving. Here, she’d finally felt safe and at peace.’

For me, the greatest strength of this book is the contrasting cast of believable characters. The villains may be a little too villainous, however, Jo provides an eclectic and realistic mix of characters that really cements the tale and is sure to appeal to a wide range of readers. Good writing has you suspecting multiple people and even though I worked out early on who it might be - there is still much to unfold in the timing and events to a fitting conclusion. My favourite characters were the housemates, both very different, but added real depth and reality to the storyline. 

‘She was alone in her old house with barely enough superficial interaction to keep her from becoming a shuffling, mumbling hermit. It wasn’t social or glamorous, but it was the life she had chosen. And still wanted.’

A Shadow at the Door is Jo’s second novel and now firmly establishes her as a writer you will keep coming back to. The pacing is good and even though you may guess correctly early on, there are plenty of twists and turns scattered throughout to keep you fully engaged to the very end. This book hooks you from the outset with the second half really bringing it home. Mystery and thriller lovers are sure to enjoy this one. 

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 Search Party

Title: The Search Party

Author: Hannah Richell

Publisher: 3rd January 2024 by Simon & Schuster Australia

Pages: 352 pages

Genre: mystery, thriller, suspense

Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

Five old friends reunite for an idyllic glamping holiday on the rugged Cornwall coast, but tensions rise when a storm leaves them stranded and someone goes missing. Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat race with their twelve-year-old son to set up a glamping site in the wilds of Cornwall. 

Eager for a dry run ahead of their opening, they invite three old university friends and their families for a long-needed reunion and a relaxing weekend. But the festivities soon go awry as tensions arise between the children (and subsequently their parents), explosive secrets come to light, and a sudden storm moves in, cutting them off from help as one in the group disappears.  

Moving between a police investigation, a hospital room and the catastrophic weekend, The Search Party is a propulsive destination thriller about the tenuous bonds of friendship and the lengths parents will go to protect their children.

My Thoughts

I have read and loved Hannah’s previous books, so it was with great anticipation that I opened The Search Party and I was not disappointed. Such a well written and atmospheric story that will have you frantically turning pages to a most fitting and suspenseful ending. 

‘She keeps asking herself, how could one weekend spiral so dreadfully out of control?’

Basically this is a glamping trip that goes horribly wrong! Told from multiple points of view and moving back and forth in time, Hannah is very clear on character voice and timelines (she even includes a list of names) and pay attention to chapter dates so as never to be confused. The two timelines are the weekend away itself and then interspersed with police interviews in the aftermath. This is such an extremely clever technique in drip feeding character and plot clues along the way. 

‘Maybe their reunion weekend had brought the wildest, truest sides out in all of them  - one way or another.’

Three families are partaking in this glamping experience for the weekend and the various dynamics between the characters and has much to do with how events play out. There are disagreements, past histories, missing campers all played against a raging storm on the Cornwall coast. Tension builds, tempers fray, friendships are strained and it all comes to a raging and violent conclusion inline with the storm. 

‘It was as if the elemental wildness of the place had got under his skin, altered him. All his emotions rising to the surface.’

The Search Party is such a suspenseful and entertaining read you will find it hard to put down. There are many dramas and unfolding layers that will keep you on the edge of your seat and guessing to a fitting conclusion. 

‘In that moment, twenty years of friendship, of camaraderie, of pints in pubs and late-night bonding over music, of toasting each other’s weddings and children, of standing shoulder-to-shoulder through life’s ups and downs went skittering away on the wind.’

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 Disappearance of Astrid Bricard

Title: The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard

Author: Natasha Lester

Publisher: 27th September 2023 by Hachette Australia

Pages: 425 pages

Genre: historical fiction, mystery

Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

History said she was just a man's muse. History was wrong. The exquisite new novel from bestselling author Natasha Lester.

In November 1973, a fashion legend vanished, leaving behind only a white silk dress and the what really happened to Astrid Bricard?

Paris, 1917: Parentless sixteen-year-old Mizza Bricard makes a to be remembered on her own terms. This promise drives her and her designs through the most exclusive couture houses in France until, finally, a legend is created - one that will endure for generations to come, but not the one she wanted.

New York, 1970: Designer Astrid Bricard arrives in bohemian Chelsea ready to change the fashion world. And she does - but cast in the role of muse to her lover, Hawk Jones. Just as Astrid's star is finally poised to ascend in its own right, she mysteriously disappears, leaving her family in tatters and perpetuating the infamous Bricard family myth.

French Countryside , Present Blythe Bricard is the daughter of fashion's most infamous 70s power couple, but she turned her back on that world, and her passion for it, years ago. Fate, however, has other plans, and in a chateau over a whirlwind couple of weeks, Blythe will discover there is more to her iconic mother and grandmother - and herself - than she ever knew.

These three generations now have one chance to prove themselves. Can the women of the Bricard fashion dynasty finally rewrite their history?

My Thoughts

Natasha Lester books have all been five star reads for me. So it was with great anticipation that I took up her latest novel, The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard. Yet again Natasha has floored me with her storytelling, almost to the point of speechlessness. Where to start with a read that was so powerful, so raw and intense, taking the reader on a rollercoaster ride of emotion. This book consumed me as it is astoundingly told from three viewpoints, three generations of Bricard women, over multiple decades. Unbelievable.

‘.. she starts to emerge from something she hadn't realised she'd been buried in. It's funny how, only when a little light comes in do you understand you've become so used to darkness that you've forgotten stars exist.’

This novel is so powerful and beautifully written, each and every character brings something to the story. Through pain and loss, sacrifice and sorrow Natasha takes you on a journey where seemingly impossible decisions will have to be made with the ramifications transcending through the years to come. Exploring the lives of Mizza, Astrid and Blythe Bricard who were famous … or was it infamous? Are the stories really true? Is it a myth or the media playing sensationalism? Or, more to the point, is it the stories these women are telling themselves that has lost its focus and reliability?

‘She wants things to be different … (she) also wants them to be right, as if she believes the truth time has left them with is the one that was easiest to assemble - as if there's another account out there of lost facts that could be reconstructed if someone cared enough.’

This is also a story of gender inequality, yes in the fashion industry, but can easily be woven through broader society. Three generations of women who were made to feel so much less than their ridiculous abilities would allow for. Uniquely, it was the men closest to them who were supportive and the power of the media and social constructs that were unaccepting of these women. 

‘This man couldn't possibly imagine how good that would feel for a woman - to truly be powerful. But it's what Astrid dreams of, and the smile that settles onto her face as she walks away is both her stay and her strength - but not her undoing.’

How delightful to also have appearances from characters in Natasha’s past novels. Remy from The Riviera House and Alix from The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre are important components to this story. For me, it was such a thrill to have those connections made. But, I mean think about it for a minute …. three timelines/narratives, past characters - how does Natasha do it? This is truly a masterpiece of writing. The balance Natasha strikes and the links made between chapters and events are mind-blowing.

‘… the world is only half of what it could be when power is defined as someone losing something and when women are merely the beautiful and the damned.’

Do yourself a favour and walk the tunnels of Paris with Mizza in war torn France, embrace all the glitz and glamour with Astrid in the 1970s and finally, start putting all the pieces together with Blythe in the present day. I challenge you not to be shocked as secrets are revealed at just the right points throughout the story, or feel triumphant when your heartfelt hopes are realised. This is historical fiction, indeed storytelling, at its finest. 

This review is based on a complimentary copy from Better Reading 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.