Book Review: "The Diamond Eye"

Kate Quinn's newest novel is a fantastic blend of historical romance, spy thriller, and kick-ass feminism.

I’ve been a fan of Kate Quinn’s historical fiction for years now, ever since I read her first novel, Mistress of Rome, way back when I was in graduate school. With each subsequent novel, she has honed her (already incredibly sharp) abilities to tell riveting stories about badass women making the most of often tremendously difficult circumstances. In her most recent novel, The Diamond Eye, Quinn has delivered what is arguably her best work yet, and that’s truly saying something.

The book focuses on Mila Pavlichenko, famed sniper of the Soviet army during World War II. Born in Kiev, she starts out as a university student but, driven to do her part to protect her country from the Nazi assault, she joins the army. Soon enough, she shows just how skilled she is with a rifle, and she notches over 300 Nazi kills before being dispatched to the United States on a goodwill tour, in an effort to sway Franklin Roosvelt and a reluctant American populace to open a front in Europe. While there, she becomes embroiled in a sinister plot against the President's life and, upon her return, becomes a teacher, even as she also maintains a strong friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Throughout the novel, Mila’s perspective is interlaced with two other points of view: short little interleafs by Roosevelt and longer chapters narrated in the third person by an unnamed marksman tasked with both assassinating Franklin Roosevelt and placing the blame on the famous Russian sniper. While Eleanor’s commentaries provide us a glimpse into her mind as she tends to her husband amid his burdens as President, those of the marksman are replete with a vicious sort of misogyny. Mila represents everything he loathes, and he takes a special pleasure in playing a key role in what will, he thinks, be her downfall. Of course, things don’t go quite as he planned, and he ultimately ends up dead in the forest, while Mila emerges as a hero.

As is always the case with Quinn’s heroines, I found myself falling in love with Mila from the very first page. She’s a trademark Quinn heroine: feisty and whip-smart and utterly unwilling to take guff from any man. And believe me…she has a lot of guff to take, whether that’s from her first husband, Alexei, who continues to make her life a misery, the many officers who think her body is theirs for the taking, or from the unnamed marksman. Each of them, however, finds out, much to their chagrin, that she is no one to be trifled with. Mila is the type of woman determined to take control of her own life and her own destiny.

Quinn is extraordinarily skilled at capturing both the brutal nature of warfare as well as the more tender moments that unexpectedly emerge during periods of armed conflict, for while she is a skilled and dispassionate killer of those who have invaded her homeland, Mila is also a woman with a heart. We feel with her as she sees her comrades fall one by one to the relentless Nazi invasion, and we weep bitter tears when she learns of the unfortunate fate of many of those left behind. Arguably the most heart-wrenching death, however, is that of her beloved Lyonya Kitsenko–who dies while trying to protect her–and I know that I felt that death right along with Mila. 

However, while Mila’s romantic interests often take center stage, Quinn is equally deft at demonstrating how important her friendships were to her as well, both those with her fellow soldiers and her fellow women. There is a very specific kind of intimacy that can only emerge on the battlefield, and Quinn repeatedly makes us feel as if we are right there with Mila as she encounters the brutality of war. Likewise, we sympathize with her as she has to constantly prove herself to men who believe she can’t be anything other than a woman. Small wonder that she finds such an extraordinary bond with Eleanor Roosevelt, another woman who had to constantly work against the assumptions people made about her based on her gender. Their genuine rapport is one of the most dazzling parts of the novel.

What especially amazed me, however, was how deftly Quinn moved between different registers. There were times when I thought I was reading a historical romance, and at others I was sure I was reading a spy thriller. She has such a keen eye for both physical detail–I’ve never felt as close to a gun as I did while reading this book–and also character psychology. We fit so seamlessly into Mila’s mind–and, in a more disturbing way, into that of the marksman–that it’s easy to forget ourselves entirely, so immersed are we in this world. If the mark of a great historical novelist is to allow us to forget ourselves entirely in the midst of a past and foreign world, then Quinn more than fits the bill. 

I wasn’t surprised to find myself loving this novel, of course, but I didn’t expect it to feel so resonant. Of course, Quinn could have had no way of knowing when she sat down to write this extraordinary story that Ukraine would once again be facing an invasion, though this time from Russia rather than from Germany. One can imagine that Mila would have been on the front lines of resistance, fighting back against those who would take isn’t theirs. 

It would not be an exaggeration to say that The Diamond Eye is one of those novels that will keep you up past your bedtime night after night. I have to admit that I was a little sad to be finished with Mila’s story, but at least she earned her happy ending, settling into a life with her beloved sniping partner-turned-husband Kostia while her son pursues his own life and career. It’s a fitting conclusion to Mila’s story, a reminder that sometimes heroes really do win in the end. 

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t wait to see what Kate Quinn gives us next!