In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev, aspiring historian Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko’s life revolves around her young son and her library job – 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. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila is torn from the battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.
Still reeling from her wartime experiences and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself lonely and isolated in Washington, DC until 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.
Kate Quinn is a New York Times bestselling author who is known for writing gripping works of historical fiction inspired by true stories that centre on women’s overlooked and heroic contributions to historical events. Her previous works include bestsellers The Alice Network, The Huntress and last year’s The Rose Code, a captivating story inspired by the real-life women who were recruited to work as codebreakers for British Intelligence during WWII.
In her latest novel, The Diamond Eye, Quinn has excavated the pages of history once again to bring to life the story of Mila Pavlichenko or, as she’s better known, Lady Death. As a protagonist, Mila is extremely fascinating and incredibly nuanced. She’s a twenty-six-year-old single mother devoted to her child, a dedicated student and aspiring historian, and a deadly sniper with 309 kills to her name. Hers is an extraordinary story that deserves to be shared, filled with action and adventure, love and loss, and Quinn excels in telling it here.
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. Both new and old readers of Quinn are bound to enjoy this engrossing account of one of WWII’s unsung heroes.
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