Author Guide · Historical Fiction
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In 1915 a Frenchwoman called Louise de Bettignies ran a ring of spies for the British in occupied Lille, until the Germans caught her. Kate Quinn put her at the centre of The Alice Network (2017), the novel that moved her from ancient Rome to the twentieth century and onto the New York Times bestseller list. Quinn, who grew up in Southern California and trained as a classical singer at Boston University, had spent the previous seven years on four novels of imperial Rome and two about the Borgias. Since 2017 she has written about the women of the two World Wars and after: spies, Bletchley Park codebreakers, a Soviet bomber pilot, a Ukrainian sniper. This guide covers her six key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 6 key books · 2017–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Kate Quinn’s best-known books are The Alice Network (2017), The Huntress (2019), The Rose Code (2021), The Diamond Eye (2022) and The Briar Club (2024); her newest is The Astral Library (2026). Start with The Alice Network. Her earlier Empress of Rome and Borgia series are listed further down, with the order to read them in.
Where to Start with Kate Quinn
If you want the book that made her name
→ The Alice Network (2017) — a real First World War spy ring and its aftermath in 1947.
If you want codebreakers and friendship
→ The Rose Code (2021) — three women at Bletchley Park.
If you want a manhunt
→ The Huntress (2019) — tracking a Nazi killer to post-war America.
If you want something outside the war years
→ The Astral Library (2026) — her first novel of magical realism.
6 Kate Quinn Books, in Order
The Alice Network
Two timelines meet. In 1915 Eve Gardiner is recruited into the Alice Network, a real British spy ring in occupied Lille run by Louise de Bettignies, and works undercover as a waitress for a collaborator. In 1947 Charlie St. Clair, a pregnant American student, tracks down the now hard-drinking Eve while searching for her missing French cousin. It was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller and one of NPR’s best books of the year.
The Huntress
Three narrators close in on one woman: Nina Markova, a Soviet pilot in the all-female bomber regiment known as the Night Witches, who survived meeting a Nazi murderess called the Huntress; Ian Graham, a British war correspondent turned Nazi hunter; and Jordan McBride, a seventeen-year-old in post-war Boston who grows suspicious of her father’s quiet German fiancée. A New York Times bestseller.
The Rose Code
In 1940 three women are recruited to Bletchley Park: Osla, a debutante who gets roses from Prince Philip of Greece; Mab, who hides her poor East End childhood; and Beth, a shy local girl trained as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. By 1947, on the eve of Princess Elizabeth’s wedding to Philip, they are estranged, and have to come together again to break one last code.
The Diamond Eye
A novel about the real Soviet sniper Lyudmila “Mila” Pavlichenko, an aspiring historian from Kyiv raising a young son when Germany invades in 1941. She fights at Odessa and Sevastopol, and her 300th kill makes her a national heroine and sends her on a goodwill tour of America, where she befriends Eleanor Roosevelt while an American sniper plots against the President. Quinn found Pavlichenko while researching The Huntress.
The Briar Club
Briarwood House is an all-female boarding house in Washington, D.C., in the early 1950s, during the Red Scare. Grace March, a widow from Iowa, moves into the attic and starts a weekly supper club that draws the other women together, until a violent act on Thanksgiving 1954 brings their secrets out. Chapters rotate among the women, with recipes woven in, and the house itself narrates the frame. NPR included it in its Books We Loved for 2024.
The Astral Library
Her first novel of magical realism. Alix Watson, who grew up in foster care and works three jobs, finds a hidden door in the Boston Public Library leading to the Astral Library, where an ageless Librarian lets lost people start new lives inside their favourite books. When an enemy threatens the library, Alix and the Librarian travel through the worlds of Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes and The Great Gatsby.
In What Order to Read Kate Quinn
Her twentieth-century novels are standalones: no characters carry over, so you can read them in any order. Publication order shows a clear line, though: from the First World War spy ring in The Alice Network to the Eastern Front and Bletchley Park, then into the 1950s with The Briar Club. Most of them run two timelines, the war and a few years after it, and the second timeline is where the plot resolves.
Her earlier books are two series. The Empress of Rome novels were published as Mistress of Rome (2010), Daughters of Rome (2011), Empress of the Seven Hills (2012) and Lady of the Eternal City (2015), with the novella The Three Fates (2015) between the last two. Daughters of Rome is set in AD 69, years before Mistress of Rome, which takes place under the emperor Domitian, so it can be read first or second; read Empress of the Seven Hills before Lady of the Eternal City, which continues its story. The two Borgia novels go The Serpent and the Pearl (2013), then The Lion and the Rose (2014).
A reading path
1. The Alice Network (2017)
2. The Rose Code (2021)
3. The Huntress (2019)
4. The Diamond Eye (2022)
5. The Briar Club (2024)
Everything Else Kate Quinn Published
Beyond the 6 key books: 13 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
The Empress of Rome saga, in series order
5
5 books · 2010–2015
- 2010Mistress of Romebook 1: Thea, a slave from Judaea, catches the eye of the emperor Domitian
- 2011Daughters of Romebook 2, set earlier, in AD 69: four women of one family in the year of four emperors
- 2012Empress of the Seven Hillsbook 3: the ex-gladiator Vix, Sabina and the young Hadrian in the reign of Trajan
- 2015The Three Fatesa novella between books 3 and 4
- 2015Lady of the Eternal Citybook 4: Sabina, Hadrian and Vix’s son Antinous
The Borgia novels, in order
2
2 books · 2013–2014
- 2013The Serpent and the Pearlthe first of two novels about the Borgia family in Renaissance Rome
- 2014The Lion and the Rosethe second Borgia novel, continuing the story
Co-written novels
5
5 books · 2014–2024
- 2014A Day of FirePompeii in AD 79, one story per author, with Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot and Vicky Alvear Shecter
- 2015A Year of RavensBoudica’s rebellion, written with six other novelists
- 2016A Song of Warthe Trojan War, written with six other novelists
- 2019Ribbons of Scarletwomen of the French Revolution, with Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot and Heather Webb
- 2024The Phoenix Crownwith Janie Chang: an opera singer and a Chinese American embroiderer in San Francisco before and after the 1906 earthquake
Novella
1
1 book · 2022
- 2022Signal Moona short Second World War novella
The years · 2004–2026
Quick facts about Kate Quinn
- Known for
- Historical novels built around real, little-known women of the twentieth century’s wars, from the First World War spy ring in Lille to the codebreakers of Bletchley Park
- 2004
- Graduates in classical voice from Boston University
- 2010
- First novel, Mistress of Rome
- 2013
- First Borgia novel, The Serpent and the Pearl
- 2021
- The Rose Code
- 2026
- The Astral Library, her first magical realism
- From
- Long Beach, Southern California
- Education
- Boston University: BA (2004) and master’s (2006) in classical voice
- First spark
- Got hooked on ancient Rome watching I, Claudius at the age of eight
- Debut
- Mistress of Rome (2010), first of the Empress of Rome novels
- Lives
- Maryland, with her husband and their rescue dogs
- On screen
- A Day of Fire, her co-written Pompeii novel, in development as a series at Amazon MGM Studios (2024)
The red mark is 2017: The Alice Network, the novel that took her from ancient Rome to the twentieth century.
How Kate Quinn Writes: Real Women, Two Timelines
Quinn starts from a real woman or a real place and invents around her. Louise de Bettignies and the officer who recruited her are real in The Alice Network, while Eve and Charlie are made up; The Rose Code sets three fictional women inside the real Bletchley Park; The Diamond Eye follows Lyudmila Pavlichenko herself. In her own words: “Historical facts provide the framework, like the bones in a human body.” One book often leads to the next: she came across Pavlichenko while researching the Night Witches for The Huntress.
Her usual structure is two or more narrators in two time periods, the war and its aftermath, so that the past slowly explains the present. The Alice Network runs 1915 against 1947, The Rose Code 1940 against 1947, and The Huntress braids three points of view into one manhunt. The Briar Club rotates among five women and adds recipes and a narrating house.
Her training as a singer shows in the casts: Thea in Mistress of Rome is a singer, and so is Gemma, the opera soprano of The Phoenix Crown. Collaboration is a regular part of her work, too, from the multi-author novels of Pompeii, Troy and the French Revolution to The Phoenix Crown, written with Janie Chang.
Watch
Kate Quinn in conversation for GBH
In GBH’s Beyond the Page author series, recorded around the publication of The Briar Club, Quinn talks with a moderator about her novels and her research.
Frequently asked questions about Kate Quinn’s books
How many books has Kate Quinn written?
Nineteen, counting everything. Twelve are novels of her own, from Mistress of Rome (2010) to The Astral Library (2026); two are novellas, The Three Fates and Signal Moon; and five are co-written. Six are the key books on this page; the other thirteen are listed under “Everything else”.
What are Kate Quinn’s books in order?
Her key books are The Alice Network (2017), The Huntress (2019), The Rose Code (2021), The Diamond Eye (2022), The Briar Club (2024) and The Astral Library (2026). Before them came the Empress of Rome novels (2010–2015) and the Borgia novels The Serpent and the Pearl (2013) and The Lion and the Rose (2014).
Where should I start with Kate Quinn?
The Alice Network: a standalone, the book that made her name, and a good example of her two-timeline method. If codebreaking appeals more than spying, start with The Rose Code instead.
What is Kate Quinn’s most famous book?
The Alice Network (2017), a New York Times and USA Today bestseller that NPR named one of the best books of its year. The Rose Code (2021) is close behind.
Do I need to read Kate Quinn’s WWII novels in order?
No. The Alice Network, The Huntress, The Rose Code, The Diamond Eye and The Briar Club are standalones with their own characters, so any order works.
What order should I read the Empress of Rome series in?
Publication order: Mistress of Rome (2010), Daughters of Rome (2011), Empress of the Seven Hills (2012), the novella The Three Fates (2015) and Lady of the Eternal City (2015). Daughters of Rome is set in AD 69, before the other books, so you can also read it first. Her two Borgia novels are a separate pair: The Serpent and the Pearl, then The Lion and the Rose.
Is The Alice Network based on a true story?
Partly. The Alice Network was a real First World War spy ring in occupied northern France, led by Louise de Bettignies, with Léonie van Houtte as her lieutenant and Captain Cecil Cameron of British intelligence as their recruiter. Eve, Charlie and the rest of the main cast are fictional.
Is The Diamond Eye a true story?
It is a novel based on a real person: Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the Soviet sniper from the Kyiv area who fought at Odessa and Sevastopol and then toured America, where she befriended Eleanor Roosevelt. Quinn invents the plot against the President and fills in her private life.
Are Kate Quinn’s books being made into films or TV?
The firmest news is for A Day of Fire, the Pompeii novel she wrote with five other authors: in October 2024 a limited series was announced as in development at Amazon MGM Studios, with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free producing and Michael Hirst writing. No screen version of her solo novels has been released.
What is The Astral Library about?
Her 2026 novel, and her first in magical realism rather than straight historical fiction: a young woman who grew up in foster care finds a secret library in the Boston Public Library where people can start new lives inside books.
Footnotes
- Kate Quinn — Wikipedia
- The Alice Network — Wikipedia
- About Kate Quinn — katequinnauthor.com
- Q&A with Kate Quinn, author of The Diamond Eye — Book Club Chat
- In Conversation with Kate Quinn about The Briar Club — Historical Novel Society
- Amazon and Scott Free team for Pompeii series based on A Day of Fire — IMDb News, 2024
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Historical facts provide the framework, like the bones in a human body.”
— Kate Quinn, Q&A on The Diamond Eye, Book Club Chat (2022)
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