Kate Quinn Books in Order
Browse all Kate Quinn books in order, with reading guides, short summaries, series background, and tips on where to start with her historical fiction.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
17 books
Mistress of Rome
by Kate Quinn
2010
Thea, a Jewish slave in first‑century Rome, falls in love with a gladiator known as the Barbarian, provoking her mistress’s jealousy. As Thea remakes herself as a celebrated singer, she’s drawn into Emperor Domitian’s orbit and a lethal web of court intrigue.
Daughters of Rome
by Kate Quinn
2011
In A.D. 69, sisters Cornelia and Marcella and their cousins Lollia and Diana struggle to survive the Year of Four Emperors. As coups topple rulers overnight, these patrician women navigate shifting alliances, love affairs, and betrayals that could cost them everything.
Empress of the Seven Hills
by Kate Quinn
2012
Ex‑gladiator Vix returns to Rome to make his fortune and is drawn back into a risky bond with adventurous senator’s daughter Sabina. As Emperor Trajan’s reign peaks and his heir Hadrian plots in the shadows, their choices help shape the empire’s future.
The Serpent and the Pearl
by Kate Quinn
2013
In 1492 Rome, beauty Giulia Farnese discovers her marriage is a sham and she is meant to be concubine to ambitious Cardinal Borgia. With cynical bodyguard Leonello and secretive cook Carmelina, she navigates Vatican intrigue as the Borgia dynasty rises.
The Lion and the Rose
by Kate Quinn
2014
Now mistress to Pope Alexander VI, Giulia Farnese seemingly has Rome at her feet—until enemies gather and an old captor resurfaces. She, Leonello, and Carmelina must untangle murder plots and court politics before the Borgias’ power destroys them all.
Lady of the Eternal City
by Kate Quinn
2015
Sabina, now Empress of Rome, balances between her brilliant, dangerous husband Hadrian and her first love, battle‑scarred Vix. When Hadrian’s obsession with Vix’s son Antinous deepens, secrets and rivalries threaten their families and the stability of the empire.
The Three Fates
by Kate Quinn
2015
Set between Empress of the Seven Hills and Lady of the Eternal City, this novella follows warrior Vix, reluctant heir Titus, and Hadrian’s wife Sabina as Trajan dies and a new emperor ascends. Each must choose between loyalty, survival, and Rome’s future.
A Song of War
by Kate Quinn
2016
This collaborative novel retells the Trojan War through overlapping voices, from doomed princes and seers to captured slaves and wily tricksters. Across years of siege, each character’s choices help decide whether Troy burns or a new age is born.
The Alice Network
by Kate Quinn
2017
In 1947, pregnant college student Charlie St. Clair flees her family to search for a missing cousin in France. Her quest collides with Eve Gardiner, a haunted former World War I spy, drawing both women into a dangerous hunt for a wartime betrayer.
The Huntress
by Kate Quinn
2019
Years after World War II, British journalist‑turned‑Nazi‑hunter Ian Graham and Soviet night bomber pilot Nina Markova track a notorious female war criminal hiding in America. Their search entangles Jordan McBride, a Boston teen who begins to suspect her new stepmother.
Smoke Signal
by Marie Benedict
2021
During World War II, codebreaker Osla Kendall spends her days deciphering Axis messages and her nights devouring mystery novels. A hidden signal in Agatha Christie’s latest book pulls Osla into an unlikely alliance with the reclusive author and a web of wartime espionage.
The Rose Code
by Kate Quinn
2021
At Bletchley Park, debutante Osla, working‑class Mab, and shy puzzle genius Beth break Nazi codes and forge an intense friendship. In 1947, an encrypted letter forces the estranged women to reunite and unmask a traitor from within their own ranks.
Signal Moon
by Kate Quinn
2022
In 1943 Yorkshire, WREN operator Lily Baines intercepts a frantic radio call from an American sailor who claims it’s 2023. Across eighty years, Lily and Matt Jackson race to change two wars’ outcomes before their fragile link is lost.
The Diamond Eye
by Kate Quinn
2022
Bookish Ukrainian student and young mother Mila Pavlichenko becomes a sniper when Hitler invades the Soviet Union, earning fame as “Lady Death.” Sent to the United States on a goodwill tour, she faces new dangers in Washington, D.C., and a deadly old enemy.
The Briar Club
by Kate Quinn
2024
In 1950s Washington, D.C., the women of down‑at‑heel Briarwood House keep to themselves until enigmatic widow Grace March moves into the attic. Her Thursday supper club draws them together—right up to a shocking act of violence that exposes buried secrets and shifting loyalties.
The Phoenix Crown
by Kate Quinn
2024
In 1906 San Francisco, opera soprano Gemma Garland and Chinatown embroideress Suling hope a wealthy patron’s favor will transform their lives. After the earthquake and his disappearance, the women reunite years later to chase the fabled Phoenix Crown and uncover the truth.
The Astral Library
by Kate Quinn
2026
Down‑on‑her‑luck Bostonian Alix Watson finds a hidden doorway in the public library that lets readers step inside classic books. When a mysterious threat targets this “astral” library, Alix must leap between stories to rescue trapped patrons and save her one refuge.
Where should I start?
If you want bestselling WWII heroines: The Alice Network → The Huntress → The Rose Code → The Diamond Eye
If you’re in the mood for ancient Rome: Mistress of Rome → Daughters of Rome → Empress of the Seven Hills → Lady of the Eternal City
If Renaissance intrigue appeals to you: The Serpent and the Pearl → The Lion and the Rose
If you like shorter, time-bending reads: Smoke Signal → Signal Moon → The Astral Library
If you enjoy multi-author epics: A Song of War
Author bio
Kate Quinn grew up in southern California, in a house where dinner-table conversation was more likely to revolve around Julius Caesar than television. She fell for history early and just as quickly fell for performance, eventually heading east to study classical voice at Boston University, where she earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree.
Music took center stage for a while, but writing never left the wings.
As a college freshman she spent weekends in a campus computer lab drafting what became Mistress of Rome, turning years of fascination with emperors, gladiators, and palace intrigue into a first full-length novel. That early manuscript launched her Empress of Rome saga and set the pattern for much of her later work: big historical canvases seen up close through the lives of a handful of people.
Those Roman stories grew into a sequence that follows slaves, senators, soldiers, and empresses through the brutal splendor of the first and second centuries. In Daughters of Rome, Mistress of Rome, Empress of the Seven Hills, The Three Fates, and Lady of the Eternal City, she lingers on everyday details—sand in the arena, gossip in the baths, hard choices at a family table—while wars and assassinations churn in the background.
From there she shifted forward to Renaissance Italy. In The Serpent and the Pearl and The Lion and the Rose, she circles the notorious Borgia clan through the eyes of Giulia Farnese, her sharp-tongued bodyguard Leonello, and a brilliant cook named Carmelina, using kitchens, cardinals, and cramped city streets to ground a story that might otherwise feel larger than life.
Her best-known work so far has come from the twentieth century. The Alice Network pairs a disgraced American socialite in 1947 with a former First World War spy, sending them across France in search of a missing cousin and a long-avoided reckoning. The Huntress, The Rose Code, and The Diamond Eye continue that interest in women at hinge points of history: a Soviet night bomber pilot chasing a Nazi war criminal, codebreakers at Bletchley Park, a Ukrainian librarian turned sniper.
More recently, The Phoenix Crown and The Briar Club have let her play with different corners of the past: the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and a Washington, D.C., boardinghouse during the Red Scare. In each, she threads together groups of women whose friendships carry as much weight as the famous events on the page.
Alongside her solo novels, Quinn has joined forces with other writers on collaborative projects such as A Day of Fire, A Year of Ravens, A Song of War, and Ribbons of Scarlet. Each book hands the story from one author to another, letting multiple voices build a single narrative about Pompeii, Boudica’s rebellion, the Trojan War, or the women of the French Revolution.
With The Astral Library, she steps for the first time into magic realism. The book follows a young woman who discovers a hidden gateway in a public library that allows readers to walk into the pages of classic novels, a premise that makes plain Quinn’s longtime affection for libraries and the act of reading itself.
Quinn now lives in Maryland with her husband and a small pack of rescue dogs. She still draws on her musical training and love of old movies, but most days are spent at a desk, sifting through letters, diaries, and history texts for the small details that make a scene breathe. Her books tend to start with a simple question—who was left out of the usual version of this story?—and follow that thread until the overlooked women at the edges are standing in the spotlight.
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