I was so intrigued by The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn that I could barely tear myself away from reading . . . I’ve read some great books this year, but The Diamond Eye is my favorite so far!! This historical fiction novel is based on the story of a famous female sniper during WWII. Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a Ukrainian/Russian history student who became a trained marksman and fought on the front lines for her country against Hitler’s forces. She was credited with over 300 sniper kills and even traveled to the United States, meeting with President and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Kate Quinn is a wonderful writer and does a masterful job of weaving entertaining fiction with her much researched historical facts about Mila Pavlichenko and those who were close to her. There is obviously violence, since the story takes place during a war, but the descriptions are not excessive. The novel also emphasizes the way Russian propaganda worked during the 1940’s.
The characters are the key to this novel. I absolutely loved Mila and the way the writing let me see how her mind worked. She was a strong and heroic character with so many feelings beneath her strict marksman’s exterior. If you like historical fiction, I strongly recommend The Diamond Eye. (I even like it better than Quinn’s previous novel, The Rose Code – which was fantastic and also about WWII.)
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