The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn is a historical fiction taking place during World War II from the perspective of a former Russian teacher now a sniper nicknamed Lady Death. This story is based on a true story of Russia’s Number 1 female sniper. This story has action. drama, and romance. The story is paced pretty well from the start making it pretty hard to put down, it dips a little when it’s focus goes away from the battlefield. The book is like two stories in one the history of Lady Death and then a time where she campaigns for US involvement and a presidential murder plot. The presidential murder is teased throughout the book until the story catches up. I loved the lead up and thought this was going to be my favorite part but the murder plot keeps having problems and keeps getting delayed, it eventually had an exciting climax. but there was a lot of give or take with the reader. The characters in this book are really great and there’s a lot of supporting characters that are memorable. The climax was really good and had a good twist. In the acknowledgments section Quinn goes through everything that happened and did not happened, but the memoir itself was part propaganda so it hard to tell what really happened and what did not. The Diamond Eye was on Goodreads best of 2022 so far list.

Plot Summary: Mila Pavlichenko is a mother and history student that works at the library when the War breaks out. She a mother to one boy and estranged from her husband that she is actively been trying to divorce for 5-6 years, but he keeps avoiding it. Her estranged husband is a surgeon and joins the war effort along with Mila who is a good shot and taught her son to shot since their father is absent. Mila is at first turned away but ends up a better shot than most of the men on her squad. She gets good and starts to rank a kill count that any man would be proud of. She’s given her own command which she finds the teaching easy it’s making the men respect her that is the problem. Eventually she has her squad and gets the nickname Lady Death, which makes her opposition fear. She gets injured and meets with her husband that thanks to all the notoriety wants her back, but she wants nothing to do with him and starts see her commander who she her for the person she is and not the sniper she’s becoming. They all fight until they are overrun with fresh German troops, she is told she is going to America to speak with President Franklin Roosevelt and his First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to try to get American troops to Russia to drive back the Germans. But it the danger is not over as an assassin plots to murder the President and who better to pin it on than a Communist sniper.

What I Liked: The Characters Mila is a fantastic character that feels very real and everything she had to overcome. The climax was pretty intense and it was a combination of tactics that Mila had learned and she was a stranger in a strange land without her rifle or spotter. I liked the friendship that Eleanor and Mila developed. I loved to hate the husband Alexi, he’s the true bad guy of the story and it was nice to see he got what he deserved in the end. I did love how the Afterthought went through the book pointing out everything that happened and didn’t happen, and some lines were direct quotes. I liked the way the war scenes were described I felt I could imagine it clearly. I loved the supporting characters especially the older wood guide whose family was murdered and wanted revenge on every German. I like how diamonds were worked into the story.

What I Disliked: This story really needed maps especially during the war just a quick reference to where the characters were. The assassin foreshadowing was nice, we were told assassin is going to happen in two days, but it actually happens like months away, since this moment was fiction, when it was extended it really held up the story and hurt the pacing.

Recommendations: This is a good story with a very interesting character. Quinn’s writing is really clear and I didn’t have too many moments where I was confused by the story. My favorite Historical Fiction time period is the 1940’s during World War II and this is the first book I have read from the Russian perspective and I found it very interesting. I recommend my followers to check it out. This was my second Kate Quinn novel my first was The Alice Network which i liked just slightly more but gave it the same rating. I rated The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn 4 out of 5 stars.