The Huntress

“She was not used to being hunted.” 

Quinn’s simple first sentence attracts the reader’s attention because it creates a sense of danger and indicates that a role reversal is taking place. This is one of many role reverses between hunter and hunted that will take place over the course of the novel. The quote refers to the Huntress on the advent of her escape as she discards a former identity.

“What about the Huntress? She vanished at the war’s end. She was not worth pursuing - a woman with the blood of only a dozen or so on her hands, when there were the murderers of millions to be found. There were many like her - small fish, not worth catching.” 

This extract from Ian’s April 1946 article describes the relatively small-scale nature of the Huntress’s murders when compared to the large death toll of armed conflict and the concentration camps. His assertion that this murderer of 12 is a “small fish, not worth catching” is ironic and in stark contrast to his own opinion, given that he has written an article about her and endowed her with the mythic name of the Huntress. This also reflects how many in the United States were prepared to forget Nazi atrocities as the emergent Soviet threat loomed.

“It was the expression on the Austrian woman’s face. Jordan had sat across from that face all evening, and she’d seen nothing but pleasant interest and calm dignity, but in the photograph a different woman emerged. She wore a smile, but not a pleasant one. The eyes were narrowed, and her hands around the dish towel suddenly clenched in some reflexive death grip.” 

Jordan’s suspicion of Anneliese, who is to become her stepmother, originates in the photograph she takes of her. While in person, Anneliese embodies grace and delicacy, the photograph reveals a different, more malicious side to her.