Huntress (Quinn)

The Huntress 
Kate Quinn, 2019
HarperCollins
560 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062740373 


Summary
From the author of The Alice Network, comes another fascinating historical novel about a battle-haunted English journalist and a Russian female bomber pilot who join forces to track the Huntress, a Nazi war criminal gone to ground in America.

In the aftermath of war, the hunter becomes the hunted…

Bold and fearless, Nina Markova always dreamed of flying. When the Nazis attack the Soviet Union, she risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment wreaking havoc on the invading Germans.

When she is stranded behind enemy lines, Nina becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, and only Nina’s bravery and cunning will keep her alive.

Transformed by the horrors he witnessed from Omaha Beach to the Nuremberg Trials, British war correspondent Ian Graham has become a Nazi hunter. Yet one target eludes him: a vicious predator known as the Huntress.

To find her, the fierce, disciplined investigator joins forces with the only witness to escape the Huntress alive: the brazen, cocksure Nina. But a shared secret could derail their mission unless Ian and Nina force themselves to confront it.

Growing up in post-war Boston, seventeen-year-old Jordan McBride is determined to become a photographer. When her long-widowed father unexpectedly comes homes with a new fiancee, Jordan is thrilled. But there is something disconcerting about the soft-spoken German widow.

Certain that danger is lurking, Jordan begins to delve into her new stepmother’s past—only to discover that there are mysteries buried deep in her family… secrets that may threaten all Jordan holds dear.

In this immersive, heart-wrenching story, Kate Quinn illuminates the consequences of war on individual lives, and the price we pay to seek justice and truth. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—May 9, 1975
• Where—southern California, USA
• Education—B.A., M.Mus., Boston University
• Currently—lives in the state of Maryland


Kate Quinn is the author of historical novels. Several, set in ancient Rome, are known as the Empress of Rome Saga. Another series, The Borgia Chronicles, is set during the Italian Renaissance. With her novels, The Alice Network (2017) and The Huntress (2019), Quinn switched centuries, setting her stories during the eras of World War I and World War II, respectively.

Quinn has also joined 10 or so other authors in a collaborative series called Songs of Blood and Gold. The three books, now collected in a single volume, span the era of ancient Greece into the Roman empire.

As she writes on her website, Quinn has always loved history. She tells us why she enjoys writing about her favorite subject:

Too often we grow up thinking history is boring, dull, nothing but flat lists of dates and places. In my books I hope to show the life, the laughter, and the humanity that runs through our common past.

The author is a native of Southern California. She attended Boston University, where she earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree in classical voice. Today she lives in Maryland with her husband and two dogs. She still loves opera, as well as action movies, cooking, and baseball. (Adapted from the author's website.)

Book Reviews
Kate Quinn’s follow-up to The Alice Network is compulsively readable historical fiction… [a] powerful novel about unusual women facing sometimes insurmountable odds with grace, grit, love and tenacity.
Kristin Hannah - Washington Post


[A] complexly structured saga delivers exciting aerial sequences and intrigue worthy of a Hitchcock movie. The book’s psychological and dramatic elements combine for a powerful and satisfying finale. To paraphrase one of the characters, Ms. Quinn’s book is "dynamite in print."
Wall Street Journal


The Huntress reads like the best World War II fiction. [An] engrossing, suspenseful, and authentic book to give you a new perspective on women, war, and the wheels of justice.
NPR


Gripping historical fiction.
Good Housekeeping


If you like period dramas, thrillers, female-fronted sagas, or all three, you’ll want to pre-order your copy soon.
Marie Claire


[S]uspenseful WWII tale of murder and revenge.… Though it’s longer than it needs to be, this exciting thriller vividly reveals how people face adversity and sacrifice while chasing justice and retribution.
Publishers Weekly


★ Readers should expect to give up weekend plans once they start this novel. Using fictional characters in a story based on real-life efforts to find Nazi fugitives provides a new historical viewpoint.… A great choice for historical fiction. —Stacey Hayman, Rocky River P.L., OH
Library Journal


★ [I]mpressive…. [Using] Russian folklore [and] witty banter, Quinn’s tale… avoids contrived situations while portraying three… unpredictable love stories; the… quest for justice; and the courage involved in confronting one’s greatest fears.
Booklist


Nazi hunters team up with a former bomber pilot to bring a killer known as the Huntress to justice.… [In parts] Quinn strains credulity,… [but] her characters are good literary company. With any luck, the Nazi hunting will go on for a sequel or two.
Kirkus Reviews


Quinn’s narrative is full of suspense. Expertly plotted, with questions of justice at its center, The Huntress is a dark, riveting account of war, revenge and deep human compassion in the face of both
Shelf Awareness

Discussion Questions
1. All the characters begin the book standing on different lake shores—Nina at Lake Baikal, Anneliese at Altaussee, Jordan at Selkie Lake, and Ian at the lake in Cologne. Nina and the Huntress clash for the first time at Lake Rusalka in Poland, and everyone comes together ultimately at the lake in Massachusetts. Discuss how the idea of the lake, and the rusalka lake spirit, weaves through The Huntress as a theme.

2. Ian states that the life of a Nazi hunter is about patience, boredom, and fact checking, not high-speed glamour and action. Do you agree with him? What preconceptions did you have about Nazi hunters?

3. Jordan’s drive to become a photographer clashes with the expectations of her father—and almost everyone else she knows—that she will marry her high school boyfriend, work in the family business, and relegate picture-snapping to a hobby. How have expectations of career versus marriage changed for women since 1950?

4. The Night Witches earn their nickname from the Germans, who find their relentless drive on bombing runs terrifying, but the men on their own side haze them, mock them, and call them "little princesses." How does prejudice and misogyny drive the women of the Forty-Sixth to succeed? Did you know anything about the Night Witches before reading The Huntress?

5. Nina calls herself a savage because of her early life in the wilds around the lake with her murderous, unpredictable father. How did her upbringing equip her to succeed, first as a bomber pilot and then as a fugitive on the run? Does her outsider status make her see Soviet oppression more clearly than Yelena, who accepts it as the way things should be?

6. When Jordan first brings up suspicions about her stepmother at Thanksgiving, her theories are quashed by Anneliese’s plausible explanations. Did you believe Anneliese’s story at Thanksgiving, or Jordan’s instinct? When did you realize that Jordan’s stepmother and die Jagerin were one and the same?

7. "The ends justify the means." Ian disagrees strongly, maintaining he will not use violence to pursue war criminals. Nina, on the other hand, has no problem employing violent methods to reach a target, and Tony stands somewhere between them on the ideological scale. How do their beliefs change as they work together? Who do you think is right?

8. Ian and Nina talk about lakes and parachutes, referencing the bad dreams and postwar baggage that inevitably come to those who have gone to war. How do Ian and Tony deal with their post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor guilt, as opposed to Nina and the Night Witches?

9. Throughout The Huntress, war criminals attempt to justify their crimes: Anneliese tells Jordan she killed as an act of mercy, and several witnesses tell Ian they were either acting under orders or ignorant of what was happening. Why do they feel the need to justify their actions, even if only to themselves? Do you think any of them are aware deep down that they committed evil acts, or are they all in denial?

10. Jordan sincerely comes to love Anneliese, who is not just her stepmother but her friend. After learning the truth about Anneliese’s past, Jordan is perturbed that she cannot simply switch off her affection for the one person who encouraged her to chase her dreams. How do you think you would react if you found out a beloved family member was a murderer and a war criminal?

11. In the final confrontation at Selkie Lake, the team is able to capture Anna instead of killing her or allowing her to commit suicide, and she later faces a lifetime in prison for war crimes. Were you satisfied with her fate, or do you wish she had paid a higher price for her actions?

12. By the end of The Huntress, Jordan has found success as a photographer, Tony is a human rights attorney, and Ian and Nina are still hunting war criminals. Where do you see the team in ten years? Do you think Ian and Nina will remain married, or will Nina find a way back to Yelena, her first love? Do you think Jordan and Tony will stay together, or drift apart as friends? What about Ruth?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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