The Huntress

Another historical novel from Kate Quinn. Although the woman in question is the titular killer during WWII, she is not the narrator of any of the three braided stories. We have Jordan, a teen and aspiring photographer who lives with her widowed father. She has suspicions about her father's new love interest Anneliese but she falls in love with the woman's 4-year-old daughter Ruth and her father is so happy again that she keeps her worries to herself. The we have Englishman Ian Graham, a former war correspondent who has seen the worst that humans can do. He now spends his time hunting down Nazi war criminals even though the public taste for punishment has waned. He has a special focus on the Huntress because she killed his younger brother. Finally we have Nina, raised in the wilds of northeastern Russia by a father who drank himself unconscious on a regular basis and, at one point, tried to drown Nina in Lake Baikal. Nina leaves at the earliest possible moment, learns to fly and becomes a member of the Russian women's bomber squadron known at the Night Witches. She was witness to Ian's brother's murder and is the only one who can identify the Huntress. She is technically married to Ian in order to have British citizenship.  Booklist says that the secondary characters: "... from Nina's anti-Stalinist father to Jordan's pilot boyfriend, feel three-dimensional, and the coldhearted Huntress is a complex villain."

Publishers Weekly describes this as an "exciting" and "suspenseful' thriller, although I agree with them that the book was "longer than it needs to be." I would much rather the author had chosen to focus on a single strand or maybe two, and the shifting perspectives--although clearly labeled in the chapter headings--were disruptive. Still, as Library Journal concludes, "A great choice for historical fiction fans, particularly of World War II-set novels, mystery readers, or anyone seeking well-crafted stories in which good triumphs over evil." Kirkus notes "That Jordan’s suspicions are so easily allayed strains credulity, especially since the reader is almost immediately aware that Anneliese is the Huntress in disguise. The suspense lies in how long it’s going to take Ian and company to track her down and what the impact will be on Jordan and Ruth when they do. Well-researched and vivid segments are interspersed detailing Nina’s backstory as one of Russia’s sizable force of female combat pilots ..., establishing her as a fierce yet vulnerable antecedent to Lisbeth Salander. Quinn’s language is evocative of the period, and her characters are good literary company.