The Huntress

The Huntress is a historical fiction novel published in 2019 by the American author Kate Quinn. Set in the years before, during, and after World War II, the novel weaves together the stories of three central characters: a Russian pilot in the Soviet Red Army’s all-female bomber unit; an American photographer whose father falls in love with a mysterious Austrian woman; and an English war correspondent committed to exposing Nazi war criminals. According to Washington Post book critic Kristen Hannah, The Huntress continues the dominant themes in Quinn’s other historical fiction, because it centers on “courageous women who dare to break the mold of what’s expected of them.” (Hannah, Kristin. “In ‘The Huntress,’ a dangerous Nazi goes on the run.” The Washington Post. 20 Feb. 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/in-the-huntress-a-dangerous-nazi-goes-on-the-run/2019/02/20/8a2c5e3a-350e-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html.)

Plot Summary

The novel has three distinct narrative strands, each written in third-person from the perspective of a different narrator. The first strand, set in 1950, takes the perspective of British war correspondent Ian Graham. Along with Tony Rodomovsky and Nina Markova—a former Soviet pilot and Graham’s estranged wife—Graham searches for the Huntress, an untried Nazi war criminal who killed his younger brother Sebastian in cold blood. After learning from the Huntress’s mother that her daughter, Lorelei Vogt, is in America sending missives from McBride’s Antiques, the trio travel to Boston. There, Tony scores a job in the antiques shop while Ian and Nina attempt to track down the Huntress. Ian and Nina embark on a sexual relationship; however, Nina repeatedly shuns Ian’s pleas for further commitment.

Another narrative strand focuses on the life of Nina. Nina grew up in the wilds of Siberia in a dysfunctional family headed by an alcoholic father. After Nina’s father tries to drown her in Lake Baikal, she seeks out “the opposite of drowning” (40) and trains to be a pilot. When the Soviet Union go to war with Nazi Germany, Nina is recruited to Marina Raskova’s famed all-female aviation regiment. As she experiences sorority for the first time in her life, Nina falls in love with a fellow pilot, the educated and beautiful Moscovite Yelena Vetsina. When Marina dies, Nina is summoned to Moscow to accept an award on behalf of the regiment from Stalin. She suspects that Stalin has an instinct about her family’s anti-Stalinist sentiments, especially when there is a warrant for Nina’s arrest a year later. Nina begs Yelena to escape with her to the West, but Yelena, who loves her Soviet Motherland even more than she loves Nina, refuses. Heartbroken, Nina flies west to the Polish countryside where she saves and befriends a British prisoner of war, Sebastian Graham. Nina and Sebastian strike up a friendship; however, when he accepts the Huntress’s offer of shelter for the night, Nina abandons him. She walks back to the Huntress’s lakeside abode just in time to see her kill Sebastian. Ian tracks Nina down and marries her so that she can travel safely to England. Years later, after Ian and Nina’s separation, Tony summons her back to join the hunt for the Huntress in 1950.

Meanwhile, Jordan McBride’s narrative begins in 1946 in Boston when her father, Daniel, courts and marries a mysterious Austrian widow named Anneliese Weber. Dainty and courteous, Anneliese is accompanied by a near-silent, sensitive child named Ruth. Jordan, a budding photographer, takes a snapshot that reveals a cruel expression on Anneliese’s face. She searches Anneliese’s possessions and discovers that she is not really Ruth’s mother. Moreover, she has contacts in the Nazi party. After a painful confrontation, Jordan accepts Anneliese’s story that her father was in the Nazi party and that tried to hide the fact because she was ashamed.

By 1950, when Jordan’s timeline catches up with the trio’s, she is determined to lay all her snooping aside. According to her father’s wishes, she gives up photography, becomes engaged to Garrett Byrne, and works at McBride’s Antiques. However, when Daniel dies in a shooting accident, Anneliese encourages a distraught Jordan to follow her dreams of a career in photography, break up with Garrett, and make plans to move to New York. Still, Jordan, who has begun a passionate fling with Tony and does not want to disappear from Ruth’s life, is reluctant to leave. She begins to suspect Anneliese of foul play when she cashes out the antique store’s bank account and lies about her travel plans.

When Jordan enters the apartment Tony shares with Ian and Nina, she discovers a file revealing that her stepmother is the Huntress, Lorelei Vogt. She immediately runs home to rescue Ruth, but the Huntress, one step ahead, threatens to shoot Jordan and locks her in the darkroom. By the time the trio rescue Jordan, the Huntress has escaped with Ruth to the family cabin at Selkie Lake. Nina, Ian, Jordan, and Tony fly to the cabin and rescue Ruth. They also apprehend the Huntress before she can escape again. Ian and Nina take the Huntress to Austria on a ship so that she can be tried for war crimes, while Tony and Jordan go back to Boston to look after Ruth. In the wake of the trial, Nina agrees to remain married to Ian, while Jordan succeeds in becoming a famous photographer. Tony opens a documentation center in Boston where Nazi victims can share their stories.