The Briar Club Audiobook By Kate Quinn cover art

The Briar Club

A Novel

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The Briar Club

By: Kate Quinn
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
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About this listen

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.

©2024 Kate Quinn (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers
Domestic Thrillers Espionage Historical Women's Fiction Exciting Feel-Good
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What listeners say about The Briar Club

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Kate Quinn dishes up a delicious novel with The Briar House!

I have loved every Kate Quinn book I have read, and The Briar House is no exception. While Kate is a master of shining a spotlight on strong women in unique circumstances during different (and difficult) points in history, sometimes they feel heavy... and that is not a bad thing!

But there was something different about The Briar House. While there were certainly some "heavy" moments, I felt different reading this one. The time period, the recipes, the house providing perspective, and bearing witness to a group of women that may have been unlikely friends in different circumstances were all ingredients combined together to produce a sweeter Kate Quinn novel. I loved every bite!

Also, Saskia Maarleveld delivers another amazing performance. She and KQ were made to work together because the way she switches between accents is mind blowing!

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Wow! The 50’s and all that was going on!!!

Great character development and loved each for who they were!! It was a great listen as the narrator is one of my favorites and does a SUPERB job!! It address post WW2 and the apathy toward the Korean War, McCarthy and his hunt for communists!! Soviet spy’s and gangsters! The coming together of people who become family!!

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2 people found this helpful

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Different from othe KQ novels

I enjoyed this story! I just finished spending a year in the DC area and really liked the references to places I'm familiar with. This novel is quite different from the other KQ novels I've read, but I still really liked it. It bounces between two timelines, both in the 1950's about 5 years apart. There is a whole cast of characters and each chapter is told from a different characters perspective. It begins with a murder in the house and then you spend the rest of the book learning about each character as you slowly discover what happened. As always with KQ, this novel is a patchwork quilt of history spun into fiction based on various real events and real people. This is definitely a good read!

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A masterpiece!!!

One of the very best audiobooks I’ve ever heard. I loved the character development and the delightful storytelling style of devoting a chapter to each character’s narrative. I loved the house as a character itself. And I loved the recipes woven into the story. It was amazing how all the characters from such diverse walks of life came together in the end. The narrator was perfect, able to perform a large cast of voices and bring each one to life. This is a book I will remember and cherish forever.

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Hooked from the first moment

Great character studies, murder, McCarthyism, predjudice, love, hate, and recipes too! I really enjoyed this book. We even get a glimpse of a character from another Kate Quinn novel-I love crossovers and even though this one was tiny, it was fun. Saskia Marleveld is once again excellent as the narrator. TW: there are disturbing depictions of domestic violence.

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Excellent read and writing.

Loved the added recipes, strong characters and details. I enjoy the time period and city of story setting. Well done!

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Beautifully written and narrated!

Loved the timeframe of the 1950s, very educational! Having been born in the 50s it really brought to light what my mother and her contemporaries lives must have been like. The different characters were all so interesting and the narration was fantastic! I also loved the point of view from the house! Brilliant! Thank you Kate Quinn for another great story! Please keep them coming!

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Oh wow I can’t choose

This book was absolutely amazing. I listened to the author’s ideas at the end and I must say amazing wonderful and insightful. My mother had my sister whom was 15 years older than me I was born in 1962 , ok off track here but I thought my parents lives in the 1950s was like on television I am the youngest of five and as a young child in the late 60s I felt so bad for them because my siblings were doing what teenagers do in the 1960s my parents were so lost because their minds still thought like the 1950s and they were amazing parents my father was a WW2 marine but was a gentleman. I’m glad to say my three brothers and sister grew up all fine and I did too obviously I’m 62 years old now. What I didn’t think about whs or actually know about was the conflicts that were happening in the fifty’s it wasn’t all like that show happy days. It made me remember my grandmothers garden and root cellar canning everything because of the crash of 1929 but her and grampa were pretty self sufficient and then I thought about my parents living in the 1950s having my three brothers and my mother worked in NY as an operator for the phone company and how my father was taught a carpenter skill from my mother’s father and my father’s brother in laws because my father’s father was a retired transit bus driver. I do remember them discussing how if your German to keep it to yourself back then but of course I didn’t suffer any consequences of being German in the 1070s thank goodness. My parents taught against racism as well and both my German grandparents on both sides were not racist at all in fact they were totally against this because they believed this country belonged to everyone no matter color or religion. My parents were catholic though and I am a little Irish because my mother’s grandmother was from Ireland. It’s interesting how we can romanticize the past and we should romanticize the good things about the past but we have to not forget the negatives that we need to forever learn from as not to repeat. Anyway I loved this book.

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Historic Fiction Perfection

Loved this book and narration so much! So many compelling characters and historic events wrapped up into a beautifully cohesive novel. I’d love to join the Briar Club!

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Outstanding listening

What a rich story, engaging from the very start. The story takes place in post WWII, the characters are well developed and the story of women living in a boarding house was a unique setting. The details of the era were accurate. Great narration.

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