“The Briar Club” offers a lovely found family and a fascinating window into McCarthy era America. I learned a lot about the era of the Red Scare with the novel touching on the invention of the pill, the lavender scare, the ramifications of WWII, and more minutiae of the 1950s. This novel read like a short story collection with long chapters from the perspective of each boarder. Interspersed are interstitials from the anthropomorphized perspective of the boardinghouse on the murder that is introduced at the beginning and connects all the characters at the end. Those last one hundred pages are much faster pace than the more reflective earlier chapters. “The Briar Club” is an enjoyable, informative read that drives home the power of female friendship and how to embody true American values.