As the New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye and The Rose Code, award-winning historical fiction author Kate Quinn has a well-deserved reputation for developing rich female leads and plots with a healthy dose of suspense. The Briar Club is no exception.
Set in an old Washington, DC boarding house in the 1950s, The Briar House is a haunting and powerful story about female friendships and the secrets they keep. Things get started with the introduction of a handful of female tenants of varying ages; they have nothing to do with each other until a new tenant, Grace March, moves into the small attic apartment. She becomes the glue that holds this cast together. She does this by “feeding and fixing”: she invites the residents to her tiny attic apartment for Thursday night dinner parties and listens to their challenges and struggles, then gently points them in a better direction. There are even a few recipes thrown in so readers can visualize (or realize) what the The Briar Club is making for dinner.
Readers soon discover what makes each tenant tick—except the mysterious, free-spirited Grace that is–until the dramatic ending.
The book hooks you immediately as the boarding house is the scene of a brutal murder, giving it an Agatha Christie whodunit feel. Before and after timeframes, and Grace’s empathic one-on-one chats with the cast of well-developed characters, allow Quinn to explore themes that include domestic violence, homosexuality, racism, poverty and abandonment, all the while dropping tiny tidbits of what’s to come. The story is laced with references to the cold war, McCarthyism, the Korean War, the development of the birth control pill, a reference to JFK (a senator back then), and even the short-lived national female baseball league. The historical mentions add nice depth as they’re from a middle/lower class perspective and bring the 50s to life, warts and all.
While the characters are all strong, I found there were just too many in the cast to keep track of. And I was surprised that Buddy Holly or Elvis weren’t mentioned in the historical references in the 50s as American culture was beginning to change. No matter. Quinn’s book is a compelling and satisfying read. 9.5 out of 10.
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn. Copyright © 2024 by Paul Wehmeyer Productions LLC. Published by William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers.
About the Author
Kate Quinn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction with many of her books translated into multiple languages. She is a New York Times bestselling author who has written over a dozen novels, including The Alice Network, The Phoenix Crown, The Diamond Eye and The Rose Code. Quinn and her husband live in Maryland.
by Laurie Wallace-Lynch
2019 Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC) Certificate of Excellence Third Place Best Food and Drink Feature
Other articles from totimes.ca – mtltimes.ca – otttimes.ca
You must be logged in to post a comment.