The New York Times bestselling author, known for "The Diamond Eye" and "The Rose Code," returns with a poignant and powerful story about female friendships and secrets in a boarding house in Washington, DC, during the McCarthy era.

Washington, DC, 1950: At Briarwood House, a rundown boarding house exclusively for women in the heart of the capital, everyone keeps their distance while secrets remain hidden behind white picket fences. However, when the charming, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her quirky neighbors into an unexpected friendship: the elegant Englishwoman Fliss, whose facade as the perfect wife and mother conceals deep inner wounds; Nora, the daughter of a policeman, who becomes entangled with a shadowy gangster; the frustrated baseball player Beatrice, whose career ended with the Women's Baseball League of World War II; and the toxic, enthusiastic Arlene, who dives headfirst into McCarthy's Red Scare.

Grace's weekly dinner parties in the attic and her homemade sun tea become a healing balm for all their lives, but she harbors a terrible secret. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the women of the Briar Club must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy among them?

"The Briar Club" captures the paranoia of the McCarthy era and evokes the changing roles of women in post-war America. It is an intimate and thrilling novel about secrets and loyalty that are put to the test.