The Diamond Eye
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4.5 • 91 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
The instant New York Times bestseller from the author of The Rose Code and The Alice Network
*Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee: Best Historical Fiction 2022*
In the snowbound city of Kiev, aspiring historian Mila Pavlichenko’s life revolves around her young son – until Hitler’s invasion of Russia changes everything. Suddenly, she and her friends must take up arms to save their country from the Fuhrer’s destruction.
Handed a rifle, Mila discovers a gift – and months of blood, sweat and tears turn the young woman into a deadly sniper: the most lethal hunter of Nazis.
Yet success is bittersweet. Mila is torn from the battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America while the war still rages. There, she finds an unexpected ally in First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and an unexpected promise of a different future.
But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a terrifying new foe, she finds herself in the deadliest duel of her life.
The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.
Praise for The Diamond Eye
‘The Diamond Eye – combat novel, wartime love story, assassination thriller – sets up and pulls off a double-barrelled surprise-ending worthy of its larger-than-life inspiration’ The Wall Street Journal
‘Mila’s was an incredible life and Quinn does it justice in this fast-paced novel’ The Times
‘This timely and earth-shattering tale of heroism will leave you breathless’ Woman’s Own
‘An extraordinary novel, based on a true story’ WI Life
‘Kate Quinn’s skill is in developing characters and relationships, adding tension, suspense and smart plotting’ Choice
‘Equal parts historical fiction and riveting thriller, Quinn’s latest novel celebrating heroic women is a highly cinematic action novel’ The Washington Post
About the author
Kate Quinn is a native of southern California. She attended Boston University, where she earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Classical Voice. A lifelong history buff, she has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance detailing the early years of the infamous Borgia clan. All have been translated into multiple languages. She and her husband now live in Maryland with two black dogs named Caesar and Calpurnia.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Quinn (The Rose Code) draws on a historical female sharpshooter from WWII in her exciting latest. In 1937, Mila Pavlichenko studies history at Kiev University and raises her five-year-old son, Slavka. She's estranged from her husband, Alexei, a surgeon whom she met when she was 15. When the Germans invade Russia, Mila, who's already trained at a marksmanship school, enlists in the army, is assigned sniper duty, and earns the nickname "Lady Death" for her high number of kills. In battle, Mila is steadfast about completing her missions with her partner, Kostia, and also finds time to write letters to Slavka. In 1942, Soviet leaders send Mila with a delegation to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Roosevelt in a bid to seek American support. The trip has its highs and lows, as Mila unexpectedly develops a friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt, but faces a threat from a misogynistic male marksman who sends her threatening notes. Quinn humanizes Mila by showing how she and Kostia use humor—along with a healthy amount of vodka—to cope with their risk-taking, and she convinces with her description of Eleanor's political savvy and influence on the president. Historical fiction fans will be riveted.
Customer Reviews
Excellent
Such a gripping historical novel based on memoirs of this amazing female soldier. Highly recommend this author’s ability to blend facts & history with a touch of romance to sweeten the story.
A book of two halves
3.5 stars
Based on a real life WW2 Russian female sniper. Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko, born and raised in Kyiv, falls pregnant at 15 after being seduced by an older man, a doctor, who marries her then abandons her. She raises the kid with the help of her family, works a menial job while completing her education, and is finishing her history thesis in Odessa when the Germans invade. She is already a qualified marksman, but takes a while to persuade her male superiors of her talent. Once they do, she quickly racks up more than 300 confirmed kills, sustains various injuries, endures many hardships, tangles with her surgeon husband from whom she has never secured divorce, and falls in love with a superior officer who dies in battle. Finally recognised for her skills, she is dispatched by Stalin as part of a student delegation to the US to try to persuade FDR to open a second front in Western Europe. She makes her mark there, befriending Eleanor Roosevelt, even foiling a presidential assignation plot while , but longs to get back home and fight in Stalingrad. Fortunately for her, although she doesn’t realise it at the time, her superiors have other plans for her.
Parallel narratives from the protagonist’s POV that move back and forth in time from fighting in Europe to diplomacy in America. The former constituted a five star war novel told from a very different angle to most. The American sojourn paled in comparison IMO. Our hero’s (fictional) takedown of the assassination plot felt like something from a Marvel comic.