The Huntress: A Novel

Review 5 stars From this novel’s opening with the Huntress deciding to move into the shadows, I was engrossed in the story, the characters, settings, the history and Kate Quinn’s writing. I was in awe of the writing throughout and discovered another wonderful author to follow. I could see everything unfold as we were introduced to the main players. The novel is told through the senses of three POVs – if you don’t count that brief tempting glimpse into the head of the Huntress in the Prologue. First, seventeen-year-old Jordan McBride who’s determined to become a photographer post-WWII and is inspired by the likes of Margaret Bourke-White – one of my heroines. She is pleased when her widowed father, who owns a Boston antiques shop, forms a relationship with Austrian widow Annelise Weber – but she is also suspicious. Suspicions that are heightened and dismissed or disproved but stirred up again. Then, in 1950s West Germany, the reader meets British war correspondent Ian Graham who has become a Nazi hunter, aided by Tony Rodomovky, a ‘Yank’ with Polish-Hungarian blood. But other people want to move on from focusing on Nazi crimes, especially the judges – the focus has shifted onto the ‘Commies’. However, for Ian, finding the elusive Huntress is personal – a reveal not rushed by the author. Finally, we are in harsh and remote Siberia, where my favourite character, Nina Markova needs to escape her father. Facing tough prospects if she remains, she risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment that wreaked havoc on the invading Germans. Friendships and more are forged amid a terrible struggle to survive a gritty and vicious war. The research for this character was impressive and I applaud Kate Quinn’s ability to blend fact with an emotional and riveting story. The focus is on the regiment, but Stalin’s cruel regime lurks in the shadows. Nina must manoeuvre between the two despotic forces and carve out a life – with a razor in her oversize boots. This book, those remarkable aviators, and this character propelled me down a ‘Night Witches rabbit hole’ – and added to my reading list. The three lives/plotlines gradually weave together, with their different timelines merging. The author doesn’t rush this process but crafts it with domino-events that build. I loved the use of drip reveals. Especially as to how Nina encounters Ian and Tony. Only one of those men is a Russian speaker, and that is a tasty device – one that had me re-reading parts of the book with a grin while writing this review. The novel uses its various settings from Siberia to Massachusetts to enhance the action and the characters. For instance, lakes play a central role for all three main characters. And to the Huntress whose haven was Lake Rusalka in Poland. But which of the well-portrayed characters will prove to be the rusalka – a lethal, malevolent water spirit? They are all intricate in their traits and their backstories, yet there are no road-hump info dumps. The detail was balanced, whether about the main or supporting cast. There was even a brief appearance by a character from ‘The Alice Network’ – although I hadn’t read Kate Quinn’s previous novel at the time. But I nodded when I met her again. Anyway, the plotlines in ‘The Huntress’ merge, building towards a confrontation that could go different ways – depending on how the complexity of the personalities impacts on events. Revenge can depend on experiences, on abilities. As can justice. So, what can happen and will it? A memorable ending is set up with care. Maybe, there was a dip before that point, and I wanted a faster resolution. Or was I sharing the frustration of being a Nazi hunter? Or do characters need spaces to build their futures? In summary, I enjoyed the clever plotlines, the complex characters, significant settings, excellent research and writing style so much I want more A book that’s hard to forget – not that I want to. In fact, I look forward to listening to the Audible version – now I've finished listening to the author's equally engrossing 'The Alice Network' and they share a superb narrator. Story – five stars Setting/World-building – five stars Characters – five stars Authenticity – five stars Structure – five stars Readability – five stars Editing – five stars

** WARNING SPOILERS** When you're a seventeen-year-old girl, your mother is dead, and your father brings home a new lady, your world can suddenly be unbalanced. "Who is she, Dad? " begins Kate Quinn's - and that question takes most of the book to answer on all different levels. Jordan McBride, a the teenage photographer into whose life Anna intrudes is a primary POV character, and the eyes through whom we see the United States portion of the story unfold. The new woman, Anneliese Weber aka Anna McBride is a complex character so expert at acting and deception that one wonders if she even knows the answer herself. On one level, cold and calculating, and on another sentimental. For me, it was obvious from the first two pages that she was Die Jagerin, The Huntress. This wasn't a mystery, but rather an unfolding. Quinn does a masterful job of moving back and forth in time between her present-day of the 1950s and the wartime. The backstory is given in flashback chapters that slowly unravel the puzzle of what happened - the prolog points to the murder of six Jewish children by a woman. She fed them, then she shot them. Another major POV character is Nina Borisovna Markova, a waif born to an alcoholic abuser in the wilds of Siberia, who becomes one of the Nachthexen, the Night Witches of the Soviet air force, bedeviling the Nazis. If you're unfamiliar with the Night Witches, it is worth reading up on them, but Quinn makes them come to life in a way you're unlikely to forget. Nina progresses from an unknown to a Lieutenant and Hero of the Soviet Union, until the denunciation of her father forces her to escape to the West. Quinn weaves in many devices and triggers through the story - Nina's father serves as a catalyst in her story arc, and motivation, a silent voice in her head. The pearls Anna wears, the violin for Ruth, the razor, the one thing each person fears, and the ruskala - the lake witch. Quinn's casting Jordan as a photographer is a master stroke, as back then, cameras did not lie (at least not too much!) and it aids Jordan as she builds her case. While there weren't any real surprises, (aside from the fictional lesbian episodes of the Night Witches), it was a well constructed story that kept you reading, even if you could guess what would happen next. Nina and Anna seem opposite sides of the same coin, but as Nina explains, the difference is that Anna kills because she enjoys it, while Nina seeks justice. Nina is probably the most complex character of the book, and well - drawn. The attention to detail in the book is remarkable - especially concerning firearms and airplanes. The negatives were few - it seemed unreal that 17-year-old Jordan, a sheltered girl of 1946, would be able to sense and piece together clues that escaped her father and the professionals tracking Die Jagerin. (One of the characters remarks on this). However, I've had that comment in my own books about my young heroines, though of a different century, so I give that a pass. It seemed a little odd that the Ian/Nina/Tony team were able to zero in so quickly on the antique shop in Boston, with only half a name, that Tony didn't ask Jordan more questions, and that Anna didn't simply kill Jordan when she had the chance. Nevertheless, it was a great story and recommended.

From beginning to end this book encompassed history, intrigue, incredible courage, heart wrenching emotion and human complexities. One of the best historical fictions I've read since The Briar Club.

What a memorable cast of characters! What exquisite attention to detail! What a great third act- suspenseful, emotionally satisfying, unexpected, historically significant- all of the things that make Kate Quinn great at what she does and makes her books a thrill to read. This one is possibly my new favorite? I don’t know how to choose when Quinn hasn’t put a foot wrong yet. Read it if you love found family, historical fiction, unlikely heros, and a measure of justice being done. Just excellent.

Overall: I loved this book! An obsessively readable historical novel told in three storylines about courageous women who dare to break the mold of what is expected of them. I loved the characters, the story, learned a lot, and overall just great reading and could not put this down. Even better than The Alice Network. 9/10 The Good: This novel is told in three storylines and focused on the time before, during, and after WWII. At the center of “The Huntress” is Die Jägerin, a woman accused of committing unspeakable war crimes against children in Poland during World War II. The novel begins with this unnamed woman on the run, and then breaks into the different story lines. The three storyines are Nina, Jordan, and Ian. Nina Markova is a “Night Witch,” a famed group of all Russian female bomber pilots during WWII. Her storyline follows for the longest period of time and was my favorite. She is fierce, brace, unstoppable, and a true force to be reckoned with, absolutely loved her character. I did not know anything about the Night Witches so was entranced with this story from the beginning. Jordan McBride is an aspiring photographer living in Boston during the 1950s. Ian Graham is a former war correspondent that is obsessed with bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. The depth and development of all these characters is brilliant and Quinn does an even better job at interconnecting all three storylines. The author’s note at the end of the book does a great job detailing the many characters that are based on real people and the history behind it. I was very surprised at how many Nazi war criminals escaped to the United States after the war and were able to live in peace. Not only is Die Jägerin (The Huntress) based on real women, but so are the other characters and these are all areas of the war I knew little about. The Bad: Ian’s storyline was a bit weaker than the other two, but still positive and important in the development of the novel. Some may say the novel was a bit long (though I appreciated this because I did not want it to end) but after reading the author’s note, it made more sense why some details were expanded on more. Favorite Quotes: “Because we can keep on. Others, they try keeping on, they just...” she mimed an explosion. “It’s too much for them. They come to pieces. Not us. Hunters, they are different. We can’t stop. Not for bad sleep or parachute dreams or people who say we should want peace and babies instead. It’s a world full of mad wolves, and we hunt them til we die.” “He knows how to look. Really look, when a woman is talking.” “Ah.” Her stepmother sighed. “Some men ogle, some men look. The first makes us bristle, and the second makes us melt, and men are at an utter loss knowing the difference. But we do, and we know it at once.” “Building a generation is like building a wall—one good well-made brick at a time, one good well-made child at a time. Enough good bricks, you have a good wall. Enough good children, you have a generation that won’t start a world-enveloping war.”

The Huntress is a good thriller with some interesting historical excursions about WWII and the following decade. The chapters take turns among three characters: an ex-war correspondent turned human rights investigator, a female former combat pilot for the Soviet Union, and the daughter of a Boston antiques dealer. Their stories begin in different times and places, but they ultimately intersect in the pursuit of a woman war criminal of the Nazi era, that is, the beautiful, elusive, and still very dangerous Huntress herself. Nina, the combat pilot, is the most interesting character in this tale; she is something of a wild woman, hardened by a childhood in the frigid Siberian taiga into a tough, wily, and resourceful force of nature. Her airborne escapades frame a particularly interesting exposition of the Soviet Union’s use of an all-women’s front-line bombing unit during WWII. The book is a page-turner and its historical backdrop is well-done, but I have a few reservations. The overall plot is somewhat predictable. Nazis have turned out to be an inexhaustible cornucopia of utterly vicious and hateful fictional villains, and the character of the Huntress adds another, though with some individual quirks. The relationships among the other protagonists also develop in an unsurprising fashion. I may be somewhat overly critical simply because of two truly excellent works of fiction that I have read lately, by chance hitting on some of the same themes but with much greater nuance. One is Bernard Schlink’s The Reader (Der Vorleser for readers of German, available on Kindle; also a controversial movie), a much smaller-scale and thought-provoking study of a woman Nazi war criminal as she relates to the fictional protagonist. The other book is Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle, a beautifully-written and gripping novel about a woman’s passion for flying, covering a scale of time, place and adventure even wider than The Huntress. The Huntress will certainly keep your attention, but for a deeper scrutiny of these themes, check out Schlink’s The Reader and Shipstead’s Great Circle!

The Huntress is the finest novel I have read in the past couple of years. First of all, there are five leading characters, three of whom narrate from their POVs, and each of them is likeable. Even the woman who is the targeted huntress/villain is, at times and in ways, a sympathetic character. The three most important characters are all women, and as one reviewer put it, "magnificently audacious." The Siberian Nina is indeed a force of nature; Kate Quinn's research to create Nina, and her experiences, so credibly is admirable to a writer/researcher of historical novels. The writing is wonderful, the pacing pulls us along steadily, anxious to turn the pages. Everything rings true and accurate as to places and historical scenarios [except one thing, see below], and I love writers who immerse fictional characters in actual history, with only understandable creative license...the author's 24-page "note" explains all the background and research that went into this extraordinary novel. Finally, Quinn also favors us with a satisfying ending. I don't like to be short-changed or left hanging after 500+ pages, and Quinn does not do this. Now, the minor blip: Quinn knows nothing of guns. She has people hunting ducks...with "hunting rifles." Then she says the duck hunters go off with "guns broken over their arms," a clear reference to shotguns. Someone is killed by an "old gun" with Damascus barrels that blows up when modern ammo is used...this refers to a shotgun, and the only non-credible thing in the book is that an experienced duck hunter would use "the wrong ammunition." Actually ammo is always related to rifles, shells or slugs relate to shotguns. So, these references are a mess...the author had a female editor and her six trusted critics are all women. She credits a man for help with firearms malfunctions, but clearly did not have a firearms expert review what she wrote about guns. Hard to believe a publisher let this mar in a minor way an otherwise superb book. Ah, well.

Loved this book so much, couldn’t put it down! Great story. Characters are developed and interesting and while I figured out certain things early on I like the fact that in the end everything is revealed and explained. You will not be disappointed reading this book! Guaranteed.

At this point, I don’t think Kate Quinn can do me dirty in a book. An author who does her homework pays attention to her writing and does not romanticize past events. This book starts out a lot slower than her other novels, I was beginning to feel a little tired but then the pace picked up, we went around twists and turns, I got excited at the accuracy of world war history. Jordan as a character I love her. She is everything society expects her to be and more, she understands what is supposed to happen with her life but against all odds, she ends up following her dream as well. Nina is such a fierce character, her personality is sharp and cutting but also warm and guarded. I would love to know these characters in real life. The relationships crafted in this are so delicious. I mean that in the way that they are not one dimensional, there is depth there is love, there is fear, trust, such a diverse range of emotions. The “bad guy” is not just evil personified, the “good guy” is not just that. If you are looking to read something that will give you a little 1940s history and herstory, read this book!

Loved the plot, the storyline and the characters. A bit verbose here and there but I suppose I was just in a rush to fly to what happens next. My favourite character is Nina. Must read.

This book is a true marvel, an exceptional masterpiece! I flew canvas-planes with open cockpits when I was young - thus I could well emphatize with the plot. I didn't know anything about the sovjet 46 all female guards bomber regiment in WW II before, but being a history neird I virtually devoured the book. The passages about the young Siberian pilot Nina are extremely well written, her social Siberian and commuist cultural background truely fascinating! One of the best books I have read in a long time.

I’ve read several of Kate Quinn’s novels, all centred on the often overlooked roles of women during the First and Second World Wars. The Huntress is another great story. Told through multiple perspectives, the story follows a Nazi hunter, and a Soviet night bomber pilot. It’s a gripping blend of historical detail, suspense, and rich character development. Nina, the fierce and witty pilot, was a standout for me. Quinn’s ability to bring strong, complex female characters to life is unmatched. A good read.

Was fascinated how the characters were developed to depict the history behind the story. Think the character I learnt most from was Nina as she journed across Russia, experiencing such human sadness to landing in a group searching, for war criminals, marrying and slowly learning to find a safe place to live and work and maybe find love. Could not put it down.