As with The Alice Network, The Huntress, and The Rose Code, her latest features a strong, whip-smart woman as the main protagonist. The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel loaded with phenomenal heroism and historical detail. But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a deadly new foe, Lady Death battles her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.

Still reeling from a serious injury and devastated by the loss of several loved ones, Mila develops an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a fellow sniper. With news of her three hundredth kill, Mila joins the Russian delegation and travels to the United States to raise funds for the war effort. Mila becomes the Nazis hunter known as Lady Death. Armed with a beat-up rifle, the Russian army sends her to the bloody battlefields of the eastern front. But when Hitler invades Russia, she forges a different path. In the snowbound city of Kiev, history student Lyudmila “Mila” Pavlichenko’s life revolves around her job as a library researcher and caring for her five-year-old son, Slavka.

After her 2021 book, The Rose Code, I didn’t think that was possible, but The Diamond Eye is a stellar achievement.

With each of her historical novels, Kate Quinn gets better. Because there is not a woman alive who has not learned how to eat rage in order to appear calm,” Kate Quinn, The Diamond Eye. “Snipers must make themselves calm in order to succeed, and that is why women are good at sharpshooting.

The diamond eye book review