The Briar Club

A Novel

AudioFile Earphones Award Winner

As she did with The Diamond Eye and The Rose Code, Saskia Maarleveld’s nuanced narration brings to life every character in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse in New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn’s haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets 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.

It draws you in!!!

I just finished this book and it drew me in from the beginning!! My grandparents were born in the 1920's so they would have been close to the ages of some of these characters and my Dad in '49 and Mom in '53 were young children or just being born during the time in the book ....how much our society has changed since then. I could not fathom being a female at that time.... I loved this book and it will be a re read for me for sure!! Plus as I collect cookbooks and recipes a physical copy is on order as well!!! Loved The House's point of view as well !!

Good story, kept me listening.

Irish accent was decent, however, if you are portraying someone from Ireland, it’s important to know that Celtic is pronounced Kel-tick NOT Sel-tick! 😉

Excellent book!!

I loved everything about this book! The characters were interesting intriguing and well formed the story had twist and turns and kept me hooked. The narration was perfect and I could not have loved this book anymore than I already do.. I would recommend this book very highly!!

loved it

fantastic book that took place during a very difficult time in history for the country and for women!

incredible

Audio execution was flawless of this equally impeccable story. Thank you, Kate and Saskia, for this audio book!