“Quinn evocatively balances the outward cheerfulness of the 1950s with historical observations
exploring racism misogyny homophobia and political persecution in this sharply drawn
gripping novel.” - People Magazine The New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye and
The Rose Code returns with a haunting and powerful work of historical fiction a story of
female friendships and secrets in a Washington DC boardinghouse during the McCarthy era. In
this gripping women’s fiction novel 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 historical mystery of
secrets and loyalty put to the test. A beautiful foil cover first edition.
