There were so many likeable characters I was able to root for, plus some to root against. Quinn does an excellent job developing characters.

I enjoyed the writing and found it easy to become lost in. The book follows Mila’s life from motherhood and marriage at fifteen to graduate school to being a deadly sniper to a goodwill mission to the United States where she befriends Eleanor Roosevelt.Īs in her other books, Kate Quinn’s writing is immersive and includes just the right amount of description. Kate Quinn, as she does in so many of her novels, used portions of the Mila’s autobiography that is filled with Russian propaganda to create a detailed, fictional account. The Diamond Eye is a fictionalized biography of Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko, a Ukrainian sniper during World War II known as “Lady Death” or “Lady Midnight”. I was super excited to read The Diamond Eye, but it did not quite live up to my expectations.

I have read several of Kate Quinn’s books and absolutely loved her last book, The Rose Code. I finally did it! I finished The Diamond Eye after starting it 3 months ago. But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.īased on a true story, 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. Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC-until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper-a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son-but Hitler’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path.

Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper.

The diamond eye by kate quinn