“Quinn evocatively balances the outward cheerfulness of the 1950s with historical observations
exploring racism misogyny homophobia and political persecution in this s harply 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 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. A beautiful foil cover
first edition.
