Liz's Reviews > The Huntress

Kate Quinn knows how to do historical fiction. The Alice Network was one of my favorite reads of 2018. And this book matches it. Five big stars!

I want a book that explores unknown areas of history. Here, it is the Nazi hunters, those that track down the villains of WWII. In this case, the hunted was once known as The Huntress. She was the mistress of an SS officer who took her own delight in killing Jewish women and children. She’s tracked by a former newspaper correspondent and a female Russian bomber pilot who was downed behind enemy lines and survived an encounter with the Huntress, both of whom have personal reasons for going after her.

Quinn does a great job of exploring the attitude of everyone after the war, not just the losers, but Americans also, that desire to put it all behind them.

I adored Nina. She might be a bit of a cliche of what we think Russians are like, but damn she was wonderful. You always hear the phrase that someone cusses like a sailor, but Nina would have you believe the phrase should be cussing like a pilot.

And who exactly here is The Huntress? As Nina says, there are soldiers and there are hunters. At the end of the war, soldiers go home and hunters, lacking that thing that says stop, look for the next thing to hunt. “Soldiers get made. Hunters get born. You either need to track danger, or you don't.”

Quinn also totally captures a photographer’s eye so Jordan rings true. Not just the eye that gets the shot but the eye that sees the minute expression that soon passes.

Quinn raises some interesting questions here. I loved that Anneleise is not the typical psychopath.

This book had me totally engaged. Such wonderful pacing and tension. While Jordan’s story starts off the slowest, by the end, I wanted to know exactly how it was all going to come together. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

And don’t bypass the author’s note which is fascinating.