I have been intrigued with life in the boardinghouses of the 19th and early 20th century even since I read Clara and Mr. Tiffany. Briar House is in Washington DC. The time is the 1950's McCarthy Era. It is an adequate but morbid residence until Grace Marsh rents the tiny attic room and begins creating lean but enticing meals on her hotplate every Thursday evening. Drawn out of their previously solitary rooms, the Briar Club is formed. The book is organized around each resident's story - all drawn from real people, all with secrets. It is both historical fiction and a murder mystery but it is mostly a story of female friendship seasoned with the morality of hard times and bad luck. It is an ending that you both anticipate and probably guess wrong. And Quinn is right - don't read the suthor's notes first.
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