Love this author and this book is no exception...even the house is a character!! Love the way Grace moves in and everyone moves around her - she is such a well written character. Love that Ms Quinn writes about real people in fictional circumstances. Highly recommended read.

'The Briar Club' takes us to 1950s Washington, D.C., during the McCarthy era—a time of paranoia and fear. At the heart of the story is Grace March, a mysterious widow who weaves together the lives of the women residing in Briarwood House.

Kate Quinn's writing vividly brings each character to life. By dedicating individual chapters to different women in the boardinghouse, Quinn allows readers to delve deeply into their complexities, secrets, and loyalties

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Australia for the ARC.

‘If these walls could talk. Well, they may not be talking, but they are certainly listening.’

Washington D.C., early 1950s. Briarwood House is an all-female boarding house, set on the corner of Briar and Wood Streets. The boarding house is run by the difficult Mrs Nilsson, who lives there with her son Pete and daughter Lina. The story opens on Thanksgiving 1954 with the house (yes, it is sentient) expressing its feelings about a murder which has just occurred within its walls. Who has been murdered, and why? While the police try to figure that out, we are taken back to 1950.

In 1950, Mrs Grace March rents a room in Mrs Nilsson’s attic. She joins fellow boarders Nora, daughter of a policeman; Reka, a Jewish refugee from Germany; Fliss, a doctor’s wife who, with her daughter Angela, is awaiting her husband’s return from Korea; Bea, a frustrated baseball player in the women’s baseball league of Word War II, whose career is over; Claire, trying to prepare for a secure future after the damage done to her family after the Wall Street crash; Arlene, keen to marry but (while waiting) happy to support McCarthyism. Seven very different women, each with her own story.

Grace brings the women together: each Thursday evening, while Mrs Nilsson plays bridge elsewhere, the women congregate in Grace’s room. They take it in turn to cook, and to support both Pete and Lina. Each woman, through a long chapter, is introduced to us and the story moves forward. Grace, always observant, reveals little about herself but we see how she advises and helps most of the others.
By setting this novel in the 1950s, Ms Quinn can draw on many significant events and developments during that period. Each of her main characters (and several of the secondary characters) stride off the page well realised and recognisable to those of us familiar with the era. I enjoyed this novel, found many of the characters likeable and could appreciate several of the issues faced.

The ending has its own twists, and I liked the way Ms Quinn pulled various strands together. Some welcome surprises as well. I finished the story wondering what might have happened next. Whatever it was, I hope Briarwood House was happy.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

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 writes only pure gold. The Briar Club is brilliantly crafted and mesmerizing. The character development is the best I've ever read. Each chapter features one of the women living in the house and every woman is multi-faceted and complicated in realistic ways. The house is also a character, which I absolutely loved! The mystery that is teased throughout the book is compelling. No spoilers! Another 5 star read from Quinn.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Briarwood House is a run-down boarding house in Washington, D.C. for ladies, and each of its occupants has a past and is keeping secrets. A mysterious widow Grace March moves into the smallest room in the attic, for her the green walls and window are perfect.

The boarding house is owned by a frugal Mrs. Doilies Nilsson, her teenage son Pete and she has a younger daughter Lina. The borders are: English rose Fliss and her baby Angela, Nora who works for the National Archives, Bea a high school physical education teacher, Arlene the snippy girl from Texas, Claire who likes to be left alone and Reka an elderly lady. Thursday nights Mrs. Nilsson goes out, everyone breathes a huge sigh of relief, Grace introduces the idea of holding dinner parties in her room, she serves her famous sun tea, Pete and Lina are keen to attend and slowly each of the ladies start making an appearance.

When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart on the 28th of November 1954, The Briar Club women have to decide who they can trust, do they have an enemy living amongst them and slowly they reveal via the narrative what they have been hiding about themselves and their vulnerabilities and all is not what it seems.

I received a copy of The Briar Club from HarperCollins Publishers Australia and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I have been a big fan of Kate Quinn’s novels for years and her latest book is well written, captivating and a real page turner.

Not all what I was expecting and in a good way, it covers topics such as where women lived in 1950’s America and boarding houses were a popular choice, unlikely friendships and loneliness, food and sharing it with others, insecurities and jealously, fear of communism in the US at the time, post-natal depression, access to birth control and what was available, sports women played and did it make a lady less feminine to be an athlete, gangsters, crime and corrupt cops and controlling men.

Most of all it's a story about secrets, what goes on behind closed doors, and in people's minds. Five stars from me, The Briar Club is brilliant read and full of so many twists and turns and I predict it will be a best seller!

This is the first Kate Quinn book I have read and what a superb introduction it was.

It opens with a sentient house in Washington expressing its feelings about a murder that has just occurred within its walls. It's Thanksgiving in 1954. The police have arrived and are trying to unravel the mystery and interview the occupants of this boarding house for women.

The narrative then moved through the residents of the house, living during a tumultuous time in US History. Macarthyism is at its height, racism abounds and everyone in the house has an interesting past and is guarding a secret...or two.

The characters are so well-written, even the ones I despised. and I was really able to immerse myself in their incredible stories of struggle and survival.

I loved the way the story unfolded, revealing little things about each character until I felt that I knew each one well. Although there are some romantic elements in this book, the real focus is on the resilience of friendship and the importance of acts of kindness. It also explores the role of women in that time - what society told them to be, what men expected them to be and how oppressed they were, even in their democratic, free country. The way these women connected and bore each other's burdens was inspiring to read.

The men in the story are also complicated and conflicted. My favourite was Pete, who we meet as a 13 year old and who develops into an amazing character.

This isn't a quick read. I kept meaning to put it down but couldn't. I kept thinking 'one more chapter'. It was interesting and engrossing and I got swept up in a way I haven't been by a book in a long time. I'll definitely be reading this author's back list.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

EXCERPT: Thanksgiving 1954 - Washington DC
If these walls could talk. Well, they may not be talking, but they are certainly listening. And watching.
Briarwood House is as old as the century. The house has presided - brick fronted, four-storied, slightly dilapidated - over the square below for fifty-four years. It's seen three wars, ten presidents, and countless tenants . . . but until tonight, never a murder. Now its walls smell of turkey, pumpkin pie and blood, and the house is shocked down into its foundations.
Also, just a little bit thrilled. This is the most excitement Briarwood House has had in decades.

ABOUT 'THE BRIAR CLUB': Washington, D.C., 1950

Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, an all-female boarding house in the heart of the US capital, where secrets hide behind respectable facades.

But when the mysterious Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbours – a poised English beauty, a policeman’s daughter, a frustrated female baseball star, and a rabidly pro-McCarthy typist – into an unlikely friendship.

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their troubled lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. And when a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst?

MY THOUGHTS: Kate Quinn's The Briar Club is enchanting and compelling. When I wasn't reading, I was thinking - What is Grace's story? Whose are the bodies? Who killed them? And why?

This is not Kate Quinn's usual fare - yes, it is historical fiction (or should that be faction?), but it is the characters who carry this story, including Briarwood House, a character in its own right. Spanning the years from 1950 when new tenant Grace March arrives at Briarwood House to 1954 when the murders occur, The Briar Club is an intriguing story of friendship set against a backdrop of political and social change encompassing the atomic bomb, McCarthyism, the Korean war, racial discrimination and the Cold War.

I loved getting to know these characters. Grace Marsh is the mysterious woman in the tiny attic room who draws all the other characters together. Nora, the daughter and sister of Irish policeman who, although she is estranged from her family, is still expected to support them. Bea is a woman frustrated by the curveball life has thrown her. Arlene is an unhappy husband-hunting woman who doesn't understand why no one likes her. Rekha is an older Hungarian woman, a professor and artist before she escaped to America who now earns a living shelving books at the library. Fliss is English and bringing up a baby with no family support, her doctor husband having been sent overseas to treat those injured in the war. Claire is focused only on getting out of the boarding house, her dream being a small house in the suburbs with a white picket fence. She will do whatever it takes to attain her dream. In addition to these characters there is the Nilson family - Mrs Nilson, a penny-pinching harridan who treats her children like slaves; Pete Nilson her teenage son; and Lina, Pete's slightly younger sister. There is also a gangster, a jazz musician or two, a G-Man, a politician's wife and a Russian spy.

Don't expect a fast-paced intense story. The Briar Club is very much a slow burn, character focused read. And one I loved. The storyline is intricate and richly layered with historical detail that I reveled in. I loved the characters' dramas, their relationships, and their stories which Grace seamlessly extracted from them. I really didn't want this book to end, as satisfying as that ending is. The Briar Club elicited all the emotions from me - it is sad, funny, touching, appalling and entertaining. A perfect mix.

Don't finish this read without reading Kate Quinn's explanation of how this book and its characters came about. It is worth five stars on its own.

There is also the bonus of recipes for Grace's Sun Tea, and the various other dishes served at the Thursday evening supper club and a musical recommendation to accompany the food. I had tears of laughter running down my face at Arlene's Candle Salad.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#TheBriarClub #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: A native of southern California, Kate and her husband now live in San Diego with three rescue dogs.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins Publishers Australia via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Briar Club by Kate Quinn for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

The Briar Club is due for publication 18 July 2024.

To date I have always enjoyed Kate Quinn’s novels and this one is now joining the shelves. This book covers many facets of the historical aspects of the early 1950s in America where each character represents a different issue being faced in society. The story itself was interesting and captivating and all the characters were engaging in their own way.

The opening pulls you in with a murder in 1954 and then alternates between the events leading up to this murder in the 4 years pervious and Thanksgiving 1954 the day of the murder.

Each character had a unique role to play in representing historical events , while all having depth and connection with each other and the reader. The pacing is well balanced and even has some suspenseful moments — the flow of the story was executed well — leading to a satisfying conclusion..

Thank You to Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia | HarperCollins for this ARC. This is my honest review.

Against the back drop of McCarthyism in the United States the book follows the lives of a group of women who are boarding at Briarwood House.
A murder has taken place at the boarding house and we are taken back to events that lead up to the murder.
The characters are as different from each other as are the secrets they keep. Even the house becomes a character of its own. The ‘Briar Club’ meets each Thursday for dinner in Grace’s room while the landlady who all the tenants despise is out at bridge. Grace who takes lodging in the attic room becomes the lynchpin for all the women and literally brings the house alive. She encourages the women, assists them and is a woman who speaks her mind and can hold her own which is much to be admired for that period of history.
This is another great story by my favourite author.

Briarwood house is a women’s boarding house in the USA. Set in 1950, Grace March, a widow, moves into the attic room. Each week Grace throws a dinner party in her room, so when a shocking act of violence takes place in the house, the women are shocked to their core. Is there an enemy in their midst?

This is a new to me author, and this book was a miss for me.

The chapters were overly long, and each one told from a different character’s perspective. It was disjointed, more like reading several short stories instead of a novel.

Very slow pacing throughout, and the addition of the recipes added nothing to the book and only served to make the chapters even longer than they needed to be. If you have to include them, add them at the back of the book.

Would I read more from this author? Unlikely.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in return for my honest review.

Another utterly brilliant book by Kate Quinn. Although this one is only my second book I’ve read I’m eagerly looking forward to going through her previous books 😍

The Briar Club is a slow burn, cozy mystery. Set in the 1950, McCarthy Era. The story is a character driven story the follows the lives of a group of ladies living in an all female boarding house in Washington D.C. The boarding house has generally been a quiet rather unfriendly environment until a new mystery boarder called Grace arrives. With her arrival friendships blossom and the house truly comes alive. But will these new friendships last through an unthinkable event.

I absolutely loved this story it’s been well thought out and researched and the characters are all very well thought out. Through the chapters you get to know each of them personally, flaws and all. Quinn’s writing really brings each of the women to life of the pages.

Although the story is set within the McCarthy era which is engrained throughout the book it is more a story of women being bought together, new friendships and dark secrets.
If you are a fan of historical, woman’s fiction and enjoy a little cozy mystery I definitely recommend this one.

(Reviews will be posted to social media within the week before publication date)

'behind the root-beer floats and the sandlot baseball games that mark our idealized view of fifties life, there were less placid currents. WWII lingered like a hangover, the civil rights era was gathering momentum and the atomic bomb...'

It's 1954 and police have been called to investigate a bloody murder at Briarwood, a lodge strictly for ladies of 'good character' and above any moral reproach. As the detective and his partner cast their eye around the group of hysterical women and a few men (isn't one a gangster?), even the House leans in an attempt to uncover just who was murdered and, how did it come to this? All, but of course, Mrs Nilson, the persnickety landlady is more concerned whether her carpet has been stained.

In this era of McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, the onset of the Korean War, and disgruntlement over women's rights, everyone has secrets. Lodging in small rooms, across a handful of floors, everyone keeps to themselves but when Grace moves in, she quickly becomes the fulcrum by which everyone else balances and pivots. And so, we journey back to 1950 and recount chapter by chapter, lodger by lodger, each individual story, and the events that brought them to Briarwood House. Over the years, it becomes clear that the tenants slowly become a type of family who help each other navigate this time of turmoil. However, through it all, you'll still be left wondering who has been killed and who on earth among them could possibly be a killer?

I confess to Kate Quinn having become an auto-buy author, for me, over the years. This book is quite a departure from her past books but it is no less engrossing and, ultimately, it is still historical fiction featuring strong women characters. Perhaps my only quibble is that I enjoyed some of the women's stories so much, I wished I could read an entire book about them alone, rather than moving on to the next chapter and next life. There's so much packed into this book that I'm confident any historical fiction lover will enjoy it.

"The Briar Club" by Kate Quinn is an engaging historical fiction novel set in 1950s Washington, D.C. during the McCarthy era. It follows the lives of women in The BriarWood boarding house, whose stories become unexpectedly intertwined.

The novel kicks off with a murder, then flashes back to show the events leading up to it. Each chapter introduces a different tenant, from Nora, who works at the National Archives, to Fliss, a perfect-seeming English mother, and several others. The boarding house itself feels like a character, adding charm with its own story and recipes scattered throughout.

The character development is fantastic—you’ll connect with each woman and their flaws. The pacing is just right, with nothing feeling rushed or dragging, and the climax ties everything together in a satisfying way.

Quinn's meticulous research and rich storytelling make the McCarthy era come alive. "The Briar Club" is perfect for fans of historical fiction who enjoy stories of secrets, friendship, and resilience. It’s a must-read that solidifies Quinn's reputation as a master of the genre.

Despite the crotchety landlord I loved my visit to the Briarwood Boarding House. Whilst not the typical Kate Quinn novel, it does have a lot of the elements that make her books so great- well-researched history, a compelling storyline, engaging characters and a few surprises along the way.

You are hooked in immediately with what initially seems like a straight forward whodunnit mystery. The storyline then moves back in forth on time over a four year time period from 1950 to 1954. Starting with and finishing with Pete, the son of the boarding house mistress who introduces to all the different boarders in Briarwood House. We are then treated to chapters from each of the women. I enjoyed that each woman was introduced with a letter from one of the characters to a mystery woman named Kitty. I loved getting to know them, seeing their friendships grow and getting to know their secrets. It was lovely to see them bond once a week for their The Briar Club supper club on a Thursday night and hear all about out the food and get recipes from the time such as Candle Salads to fried bananas in sugar and rum.

Set during the Cold War and the McCarthy era, it was interesting to see day to day life of women and all the issues they faced at the time. Covering a lot of ground there were relationships with mobsters, the struggle between being a mother and having a career, the introduction of contraception, closest homosexuality, struggle with no longer having a place now that the men have returned from war and immigrations issues both as Jewish and Eastern European immigrant.

As the stories progress, there are a few hints along the way that things might not be as they seem. I picked up a few surprises but was still taken in by quite a lot. I loved how everything came together at the end and its final epilogue. As usual Kate’s authors notes were fascinating, I particularly loved seeing the inspiration for the novel and each of the characters. A lovely mix of history, mystery and friendship.

The Briar Club begins with two dead bodies found in a Washington D.C. boarding house in 1954. The story then time jumps to 4 years earlier and tells the stories of the women who are boarding at the house. Nora, an Irishwoman from a family of corrupt policemen who is in love with a gangster; Fliss, an Englishwoman suffering from postpartum depression whilst her husband serves in the Korean War; Claire, who does everything and anything to save for a home of her own after her family loses everything in the Great Depression, but she falls in love with an unexpected person along the way; Reka, a Hungarian refugee who was an art professor but is now impoverished and widowed; Bea, an Italian woman who has recently retired from professional baseball; and Grace, the newest occupant of Briarwood house who has a mysterious past but brings the residents together over Thursday night dinners at the so called “Briar Club”.

This book started quite slowly and took awhile to get into, but once I did I was invested in each woman’s story. The intertwined stories take place against a backdrop of the McCarthy era where anyone with suspected Communist or homosexual sympathies or behaviours were persecuted. There was a large cast of characters but it was easy enough to follow who everyone was. I really enjoyed learning about this era of American history from the perspective of women who lived through it. I was even more impressed when I found out that most of the characters were based on real people - this book was extremely well researched, as all of Kate Quinn’s books are. The mystery aspect was returned to in between character chapters and helped to bring the book together. The found family aspect provided all the warm and fuzzy feelings.

Loved this one! It was beautifully written and had me hooked from the beginning of the novel. Will definitely be reading more from this author! Thank you for the ARC💜