The Briar Club: A Novel: A Thrilling and Powerful Story of Female Friendships and Secrets

I’ll admit I sometimes bog down in the history in Kate Quinn’s novels, and I love history. Quinn is the author of The Diamond Eye and The Huntress, among other books. But, The Briar Club! I only slowed down toward the conclusion of this book because I didn’t want it to end. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year.

On Thanksgiving, 1954, Briarwood House in Washington D.C. holds two bodies and seventeen suspects. The house itself is worried about the stories that will be told to the police. It’s a scary time to be involved with the police during the McCarthy era. And, every woman at Briarwood House has a secret.

Mrs. Nilsson is the owner and landlady of Briarwood. No one, including the house, likes her. She’s not welcoming to the women in her boardinghouse, and she squelches all joy or happiness to be found there, including in her own two children. But, when the widow Mrs. Grace March takes the last room there in June 1954, the atmosphere slowly begins to change.

Grace might have the tiniest room in the house, but she finds a way to bring the women together, from Fliss, the wife and mother whose doctor husband is overseas, leaving her with a fussy baby, then toddler, to Nora, a policeman’s daughter who falls for a man with a mysterious life. The women in the boardinghouse work in the National Archives, or as teachers, or in libraries. But, on Thursday nights, when Mrs. Nilsson plays cards, they gather in Grace’s room for makeshift dinners.

In four years, each woman has the chance to tell her story, revealing her secrets. But, they all come to together on a Thursday, Thanksgiving 1954. Will the last secrets crumble in the face of the police, or will the women hold themselves together in this terrifying tine?

The Briar Club is a story of women’s friendship set against the frightening backdrop of McCarthyism. Despite the number of people living in Briarwood House, each one has a distinct personality. Backgrounds are perfect to offer a variety of lifestyles and opinions during this difficult time. Quinn’s format offers each woman the chance to step into the spotlight, to share their voice. By the conclusion, when they have the chance to speak up, the reader waits with baited breath to see how their personalities will be reflected at a time of crisis.

As I said, one of the best books I’ve read this year.

This was a very different type of read from Ms. Quinn, but I loved it!! As always the characters shine, there is a very diverse group and how they all come together is a great story!!

Think the McCarthy era in Washington D.C. 1950. There are lots of people still having problems finding jobs and earning a decent living.

The opening quickly draws you into the novel as there is a murder in the house and the police are there trying to find out who the victims are and also who the killer might be.

We then travel back in time to find Pete, the son of the owner of Briarwood House, introducing Mrs. Grace March to his mother. She has come to look at the small attic room - she decides to take it.

The boarding house is home to an eclectic group of women.

**Grace - the mysterious widow in the attic room who draws everyone in to a night of food and fun every week.

**Nora a police officer's daughter who becomes involved with a gangster

**Bea ,a somewhat frustrated woman - who still longs for her days playing in the women’s baseball team, which ended along with the war.

**Arlene, a frustrated and unhappy woman who has bought into McCarthy’s Red Scare and sees a communist in every new person she meets

**Reka, an older Russian woman who is the last person to join the Thursday Night dinners held in Grace’s room.

**Fliss and her little girl, still a baby, who longs for her husband to come home. He is a doctor in the military.

All of these characters, of course, have secrets.

The pace of this novel is quite a bit slower than her WW11 spy novels and it took me longer to get through.

The ending is a great one that shows how a group of very diverse women can come to know each other, accept each other’s differences and form an alliance that helps them move forward in their lives.

**The author's notes are stellar and not to be missed!!

I can highly recommend this novel - but be prepared for a bit of a slow burn. It’s all worth it!!

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss. It was my pleasure to read and review this title.

This is a wonderful story and I found myself disappointed that it came to an end.

The story is set in the early 1950s in a woman's only boarding house on the corner of Briar and Wood streets in Washington D.C. The house is affectionately dubbed Briarwood House for obvious reasons. We get to meet all the residents during the 4 years the story involves. Each of the seven residents get a chapter (a long one) to share their story. Quinn cleverly keeps the stories in sequential order so that we are always moving forward in time with the characters and not revisiting something we've already read through a separate set of eyes.

The woman are all fascinating in their own unique ways. We get to empathise, rage at, like, not like through Quinn's remarkable story telling. Grace March is perhaps my favourite. She's the captain of the ship, so to speak. She's the last to arrive and the one who establishes the Briar Club Thursday night dinners in her upstairs 4B room which becomes a weekly calendar marker for each of the ladies. They take turns supplying dinner and grow to trust each other through their camaraderie. Grace is a mystery. She doesn't reveal much about herself, and is a tremendous listener and problem solver for the other ladies. She is gutsy, streets mark and won't let someone play her.

It's a strange time in America. Post WWII, a war going on in Korea which no one cares about but there's agreeing fear about Communist Russia fuelled by Joe McCarthy's incessant badgering through the media. Women are discovering they can look after themselves, can gain employment and be in control of their relational needs. But misogyny is ever prevalent and we get to witness how our ladies grapple with it.

Each of the women are so different, I loved how Quinn brought us this vibrant collection of personalities and characters. It was wonderful. I enjoyed meeting them all. Yes, there were some that frustrated me and I struggled a little to like them but the way Quinn presents each woman we get to better understand their situation, background and their rationale for acting the way they do.

There are also some interesting male characters. Pete, the 13 year old who grows through his teens during the story, is a lovely demonstration of a young man having female role models who help shape him. His father deserted Pete and his younger sister, Lina, and their mother a few years back and he lacks for male modelling. But what he learns from the women will keep him in good stead as he matures.. Xavier Byrne, Nora's love interest is fascinating grappling with being born into a master's family.

Quinn introduces us to a tremendous microcosm of America in that period through the eyes of these women and the others who play a role, some small, some large, in their lives. It's historical (modern) fiction at its best.

I feel very fortunate having received access to the story via the Net Galley app by the publisher, however, this had no bearing on my review.

Kate Quinn outdid herself here. This is a story about a dreary Washington, DC boarding house during the McCarthy era. On the surface, the women appear to be completely different but as time passes they bond and become the Briar Club. Intrigues, passions, disappointments, and secrets abound as each woman’s reality is revealed…many surprises lurk under their taffeta dresses!

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 5/5

Thanksgiving 1954. Washington, DC. A women’s boarding house. A body. And blood — lots of blood. That’s how Kate Quinn’s latest book gets started. And yes, once I started, I never put it down as per usual with her books. She can really write!

Backing up from the Thanksgiving turmoil, the book starts in June 1950 and shifts the POV from boarder to boarder as the timeline makes its inexorable crawl towards the “exciting” date. This is an excellent device as not only do we get the events leading up to the end from different perspectives, we also get the stories of the women — all from different backgrounds and with different goals which together comprise a compendium of women’s lives at that time. An injured female baseball player from the short-lived women’s leagues; an older immigrant from Hungary; a young mother whose doctor husband has been overseas for two years; a secretary for the (real life) female Maine senator who goes up against McCarthy when nobody else has the guts; a secretary for HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee); a woman working for the National Archives in love with a gangster despite her best intentions; and the elusive Grace Marsh who brings them all together. These are just hints! Quinn does meticulous research and is able to bring so much of the McCarthy era to the surface — especially around the societal expectations of women. It felt like I was living it.

The book is non-stop action — but — I realized it is the kind of action I care about. Things change, people and their prejudices, fears, and disappointments have to be dealt with and some individuals actually use their experiences to shift their perspectives. Opportunities come up and people learn about themselves (for better and worse) when they choose a reaction. Action does not have to be long (and very dull) car chase scenes or long battles of any kind. Epiphany! Absolutely captivating characters — a couple of “bad men” with no real depth but plenty of men and women (and kids) who are each real in their own way. FYI two of the (fictional) characters were named after people who won the “name-a-character” raffle — what fun! Some impressive twists — do not read the end or the notes first. In addition to being a gripping read, I’m still thinking about it many days later. Always a good sign.

Highly recommended.

I am a huge fan of Kate Quinn's work. I have read all of her more recent novels, with The Alice Network being one of my top five favorite books of all time. The was so delighted to read The Briar Club and it definitely did not disappoint.

This story takes place in the 1950's amidst the height of McCarthyism and follows each of the residents of the Briarwood Boarding House for Women. Each chapter focuses on a different tenant and tells their story while also being interconnected to the other tenants. This book reads very differently than her previous books and is considerably more low stakes (something which the author even acknowledges in her Authors Note). I love this storytelling departure and found The Briar Club to be more engrossing at a character development level. I truly feel as if I know every member of that boarding house and will be thinking about them for years to come. This book even has elements of mystery and twists, all while being true to Kate Quinn's signature writing style and voice.

Clever idea to make the house one of the characters and use a murder as the frame story to MCCarthyism and spies in Washington, DC. This is a more unusual topic for Quinn who is dabbling in a touch of magical realism to make the house a person who narrates one of the chapters. The other women are all boarding at the Briar House when the murder happens. From mobsters, to spies, domestic abuse and lesbians who play baseball, Quinn covers many topics in this novel. I enjoyed the creativity to stitch all the characters and backstories together. However, there seems to be a bit too many people. I liked the spy story and wish that had been more of the book. I do think Quinn has a talent for making history come to life and examining past events and giving the reader a way to reflect on society.