Kate Quinn’s new novel, The Briar Club, begins with a murder in a Washington, D.C. boarding house on Thanksgiving, 1954. We don’t know who the victim is – that will be revealed later on – but it does seem that the killer is likely to be one of the seventeen people gathered in the kitchen waiting to be interviewed by the police. To get answers, we have to go back to the day four years earlier when Grace March arrives at Briarwood House and agrees to take the tiny apartment in the attic…
Grace is just one of several women living in the house, all of whom are hiding secrets and in some cases are not quite what they seem. There’s Nora, who works at the National Archives and is in love with a gangster; Bea, a former baseball player forced to give up her dreams; Claire, who is desperately trying to save to buy her own home; Fliss, an Englishwoman with a baby and an absent husband; unhappy, spiteful Arlene whom nobody likes; and Reka, an elderly Hungarian refugee. The novel unfolds through a series of interlinked short stories each focusing on one of these women, interspersed with chapters describing the aftermath of the Thanksgiving murder. The latter are narrated by Briarwood House itself, because the house knows better than anyone else what has been going on within its walls!
I enjoyed The Briar Club, but found some of the women’s stories much more engaging than others. Nora’s story came first and was completely gripping, which maybe raised my expectations too high for the rest of the book. By the time I reached Bea’s section in the middle, I was starting to get bored, although things did pick up again later on. Despite the brief chapters about the murder that are scattered throughout the book, I think anyone who starts to read this expecting a mystery novel or a thriller will be disappointed – but if you like character-driven novels with a slower pace it will probably be more to your taste. Speaking of taste, food and drink play a big part in the story, with each character sharing some of their recipes with us! So if you want to know how to make Bea’s ragù, Arlene’s candle salad or Claire’s potato pancakes, the instructions are all in the book (and even if you’re not a cook, I recommend skipping to the end of each recipe where you’ll find a suggestion for a suitable song to accompany the meal).
Although each woman in the house has her own individual story to tell, they all get together for weekly social gatherings in Grace’s attic room (the ‘Briar Club’ of the title) and over the years most of the women begin to form close bonds. A very different kind of relationship that also develops is between the women of the Briar Club and the two children of their landlady, Mrs Nilsson. Pete Nilsson gets a chapter of his own, but I particularly loved seeing how his younger sister, Lina, grows in confidence (and improves her baking skills) due to the friendship and support of the Briar Club. The novel also provides us with a snapshot of life in America in the early 1950s, with a focus on McCarthy and the fear of communism.
The Briar Club was an enjoyable read overall, but I would have preferred some of the women’s stories to be cut short or left out altogether. So far, The Rose Code is still my favourite of the three Kate Quinn books I’ve read (the other is The Diamond Eye).
Thanks to HarperCollins for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.
This is book 16/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.
Book 34/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024
She Reads Novels 
I do like character-driven stories, though it sounds like there are a little too many character POVs in this one. Having recipes in it is fun, too. I might give this one a try. 😀
There didn’t really need to be so many characters, but otherwise I enjoyed the book. Yes, the recipes were fun!
I’m looking forward to this one, but I guess I didn’t realize that it was structured as it is. Thanks for the heads up. Rose Code is my absolute favorite of her books, and I’ve read it twice. I wish they would make a movie of it 🙂 I also like Diamond Eye, and was hoping for something along that line, more of a cohesive story, I guess.
Not sure why I am listed as whispersvaliantly075370f462. But, I am JaneGS of https://janegs.blogspot.com/
WordPress has been behaving strangely all week. A few people have mentioned having trouble commenting and I’m trying to find out what the problem is! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this book when you read it. I would definitely have preferred a more cohesive plot like The Rose Code and Diamond Eye.
By coincidence, just before reading your review, I happened to read an article by Kate Quinn on her inspiration for this book in this month’s Writing Magazine! It made your review so much more interesting as I had a good idea of the story already.
That was good timing! It’s an interesting book, but the structure made it difficult for me to really love it.
Interesting. I still want to read it, and I too love her Rose Code and Diamond Eye.
I hope you enjoy it, Davida. I would be interested to hear what you think of it.
I’m not a big Kate Quinn fan.
I loved The Rose Code but have been a bit disappointed with the others I’ve read.
I have this on my list, and now that you mentioned recipes I am thinking I should push it up the list.
Thanks for sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.
I hope you enjoy it. The recipes add something special to the story.
I am a bit confused about the ending. Who do the police think killed the senator’s son?