The Briar Club
-
-
4.4 • 374 Ratings
-
-
- $19.99
Publisher 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.
Includes a bonus conversation with Kate Quinn, Saskia Maarleveld, and Tessa Woodward, editor of The Briar Club.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Come meet the quirky ladies of the Briarwood boarding home in this enchanting historical cozy mystery. Young Pete Nilsson thinks he’s destined to do menial tasks for his overbearing mother around their boarding house forever—until the day Grace March moves in. Through her weekly dinner parties, Grace turns the boarders from mere acquaintances to real friends who open up Pete’s world in amazing new ways. That is, until one of them is murdered on Thanksgiving. Setting the story in 1950 during the post-WWII Red Scare, Kate Quinn immerses this tale of friendship in the period’s truly paranoid history. We loved how each chapter gave us a different boarder’s perspective, with emotive and versatile narrator Saskia Maarleveld deftly revealing each of their secrets. In a delightful twist, this fascinating mystery even takes us into the “mind” of Briarwood itself, giving us the home’s unique view on each of its fascinating ladies. If you’re looking to listen to a mystery full of unforgettable characters, it’s time to cue up The Briar Club.
Customer Reviews
Lovely read
Definitely not your typical Kate Quinn book but so delightful! I kept thinking the next chapter and description of the next member of the club cannot be as rich or in depth or interesting, BUT it was. The murder itself is truly a side note to the threads of connections, attachments and real life characteristics and experiences of family and friends and those we dislike. The story of each characters experiences and how they shaped them was written beautifully and the power of community is so poignant!
Such a great read!
Really enjoy the story line and how well the narrator is able to navigate through the story and the characters, helping to give each of them their own authentic personality throughout. Highly recommend!
A great story marvelously narrated!
This is the first audiobook that I've actually enjoyed and didn't find myself criticizing every minute. I'm not normally a fan of audiobooks but I got this one because I had a very short time to read the book for my book club. After I finished it though, I bought another audiobook by the same author and narrated by the same narrator (The Rose Code) because I enjoyed "The Briar Club" so much!