The Huntress
A Soviet Night Witch bomber pilot and a Nazi hunter converge on a war criminal hiding in postwar Boston.
The Verdict
Kate Quinn's most propulsive war novel hangs on a single hunt: a Nazi war criminal, vanished into the ordinary streets of postwar Boston, and the unlikely trio closing in. Among them is a former Soviet night-bomber pilot, one of the real 'Night Witches' who flew flimsy biplanes against the Germans in the dark — and Quinn braids her wartime flying with the postwar pursuit so the two timelines tighten on each other. It is a thriller with real history in its bones: the women aviators the Soviets used and discarded, and the murderers the peace let slip away.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The Night Witches woven into a postwar manhunt
- A propulsive dual-timeline thriller
- Women aviators and Nazi-hunting together
- Solidly researched popular fiction
Look elsewhere if you want
- A factual history of the air war or war-crimes trials
- Literary subtlety over genre plotting
- A single, linear narrative
Why We Rated It 4.4
Historical Context
The Huntress (2019) interleaves the wartime story of a Soviet 'Night Witch' bomber pilot with a postwar hunt for an escaped Nazi war criminal hiding in the United States. The all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment, on which one storyline draws, was a real Soviet unit.
Read It Alongside
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0062740373
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
Frequently Asked Questions
- Were the Night Witches real?
- Yes — the Soviet 588th Night Bomber Regiment was an all-female unit whose pilots flew night raids in obsolete biplanes; the Germans nicknamed them the Night Witches.
- Is The Huntress connected to Quinn's other novels?
- It shares her approach of weaving real wartime history into a plot-driven story, but it stands on its own.