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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Great characters!

There is a lot to love about this book. It has great characters who are all so different, but become a family. You'll come to know them all well and root for them even if you don't particularly like them. It's set in the 50s, with the struggles of 1950s America, like the Korean conflict, Russian spies, women's rights and the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. It's a murder mystery that will keep you guessing until the end.

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3 people found this helpful

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Loved the in-depth exploration of each character and the interweaving of the stories.

Same as above. Plus, this reader is always marvelous. So glad the house had a voice.

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1 person found this helpful

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2nd Time Listening!

I almost never listen or read a book twice…I simply remember too much about it. But this book was so good that it was well worth listening to twice. Plus I read it the first time and listened to it the second time around. Either way was well worth it! I hope that you read this review and find something that intrigues you or helps you decide that this is one of the good ones.
The ending wasn’t given away and is quite the puzzle all the way through although I guessed at one of the dead bodies halfway through.
I like how the author moves back and forth in time while giving nothing away in clues. I think Kate Quinn is an amazing author and I have read 4 of her books so far.
I hope you will join so many of us who think she is an amazing and gifted writer.

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Hooray

I love Kate Quinn! I can never stop listening to her books. They are all different with great characters and great plots. I love the parts in this book when it’s written from the POV of the house.
Saskia Maarleveld is an amazing narrator!

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The characters, the history lessons and the plot

I had no idea how, after describing all the characters and their situations, Quinn was going to link such a diverse group of individuals, but she cleverly united their various stories into a superb, serious and feel-good book.

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I don’t want to say goodbye!

This book is a pure joy to read. Great character development and storyline. I don’t want to leave the Briar Club!

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Standout book and performance

Character development was excellent. I loved so many of the players. And I LOVED the house as a character.

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Narrator is brilliant

Rich characters, felt as though I was living at the briar house. Loved how these women protected and supported each other… especially Pete and Lena

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Love the history and the suspense!!

The story had me drawn in from chapter one and had me guessing until the last pages! The narrator is enchantingly gifted! The bonus will be the recipes.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Enjoyable book

This was a very enjoyable read about women and friendships that also tackles some of the bigger issues of that time period. Well done Kate Quinn. Again.

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