I was super excited to read a new Kate Quinn novel only one year after reading The Rose Code. I have loved every one of Quinn’s WWII novels, but I found The Diamond Eye to be the weakest one so far and the most predictable. Still, if you enjoy historical fiction and temper your expectations, I think you will find The Diamond Eye to be an interesting enough read.

The Diamond Eye is the fictional account of real-life WWII Russian sniper, Mila Pavlichenko, who had 309 confirmed kills (the unconfirmed kills could be much higher) before an injury forced her off the front line. She was then sent on a propaganda tour in the US to convince the Americans to start a second front in Europe, and she developed a friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt.

Mila’s story is really one endless battle against misogyny, though. Even though Russian women were allowed to join the army during WWII (unlike in other countries), they were expected to serve in the medical battalion, not in the infantry. They were also expected to have sex with the officers, and if they did not, then they would not be promoted. The fictional Mila, like her real-life counterpart, is an excellent sniper, but her superiors are reluctant to reward her for her service.

Mila is sent on the propaganda tour not only because of her 309 confirmed kills, but because she is also pretty to look at. However, outside of Russia, no one believes she is a sniper, because how could a woman look down the scope of her rifle at another person and kill them? Mila is subject to frivolous and impertinent questions from the US press, like how does she put on her makeup while fighting in the war and what colour underwear does she wear. Mila pretty much finds herself having to continually prove to every man that she meets that she, as a woman, is a capable of being a soldier.

The suspense in The Diamond Eye comes from a subplot that involves a plan to assassinate US President Franklin Roosevelt. The novel alternates between being told from Mila’s perspective and the perspective of “the marksman”, who plans on framing Mila for Roosevelt’s assassination so that the US will no longer provide support to Russia in the war. The marksman is just as misogynistic as the rest of the men in the novel, so it is obvious what is going to happen when Mila finally figures out what is going on. Unlike Quinn’s other novels, there are not multiple female characters to follow and there is not much in the way of mystery and suspense, so The Diamond Eye is longer than it needs to be.