Book Club
Current Book
Join us on October 7, 2025 at 7:00 pm at Cancun Mexican Grill for a lively discussion of this month’s book “The Huntress” by Kate Quinn. Books can be checked out at the library Circulation Desk, or put on hold here.
Copies of the book are available at LTPL and also as a downloadable e-book and audiobook on Libby, and audiobook on hoopla . Please contact the library if you need assistance in how to use Libby or Hoopla on your own device
Download the eBook or audiobook on Libby here.
Download the audiobook on hoopla here.
Book Summary
Bold and fearless, Nina Markova always dreamed of flying. When the Nazis attack the Soviet Union, she risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment wreaking havoc on the invading Germans. When she is stranded behind enemy lines, Nina becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, and only Nina’s bravery and cunning will keep her alive.
Transformed by the horrors he witnessed from Omaha Beach to the Nuremberg Trials, British war correspondent Ian Graham has become a Nazi hunter. Yet one target eludes him: a vicious predator known as the Huntress. To find her, the fierce, disciplined investigator joins forces with the only witness to escape the Huntress alive: the brazen, cocksure Nina. But a shared secret could derail their mission unless Ian and Nina force themselves to confront it.
Growing up in post-war Boston, seventeen-year-old Jordan McBride is determined to become a photographer. When her long-widowed father unexpectedly comes homes with a new fiancée, Jordan is thrilled. But there is something disconcerting about the soft-spoken German widow. Certain that danger is lurking, Jordan begins to delve into her new stepmother’s past—only to discover that there are mysteries buried deep in her family . . . secrets that may threaten all Jordan holds dear.
In this immersive, heart-wrenching story, Kate Quinn illuminates the consequences of war on individual lives, and the price we pay to seek justice and truth.
All are welcome! No registration required.
Discussion Questions
1. All the characters begin the book standing on different lake shores – Nina at Lake Baikal, Anneliese at Altaussee, Jordon at Selkie Lake, and Ian at the lake in Cologne. Nina and the Huntress clash for the first time at Lake Rusalka in Poland and everyone comes together ultimately at the lake in Massachusetts. Discuss how the idea of the lake, and the rusalka spirit weaves through The Huntress as a theme.
2. Ian states that the life of a Nazi hunter is about patience, boredom and fact-checking, not high-speed glamour and action. Do you agree with him? What preconceptions did you have about Nazi hunters?
3. Jordan’s drive to become a photographer clashes with the expectations of her father – and almost everyone else she knows – that she will marry her high school boyfriend, work in the family business, and relegate picture-snapping to a hobby. How have expectations of career versus marriage changed for women since 1950?
4. The Night Witches earn their nickname from the Germans, who find their relentless drive on bombing runs terrifying, but the men on their own side haze them, mock them and call them “little princesses.” How does prejudice and misogyny drive the women of the Forty-Sixth to succeed? Did you know anything about the Night Witches before reading The Huntress?
5. Nina calls herself a savage because of her early life in the wilds around the lake with her murderous, unpredictable father. How did her upbringing equip her to succeed, first as a bomber pilot and then as a fugitive on the run? Does her outsider status make her see Soviet oppression more clearly than Yelena, who accepts it as a the way things should be?
6. When Jordan first brings up suspicions about her stepmother at Thanksgiving, her theories are quashed by Anneliese’s plausible explanations. Did you believe Anneliese’s story, or Jordan’s instinct?
7.How did Ian and Tony deal with their post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor guilt, as opposed to Nina?
8. Throughout the book, war criminals attempt to justify their crimes (i.e., “acts of mercy” or “just following orders”). Why do they feel the need to justify their actions, even if only to themselves? Do you think any of them are aware deep down that they committed evil acts, or are they in denial?
9. In the final confrontation at Selkie Lake, the team is able to capture Anna instead of killing her or allowing her to commit suicide, and she later faces a lifetime in prison for war crimes. Were you satisfied with her fate?
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