4.5 stars
I’ve read a few books set during the Serbian genocide in the 90s. This one was the best of them. I learned new things from this book that I didn’t know before. It was trigger but these are important things we should know about. I liked that the dual timeline followed the same character. I also liked the main character’s revenge themes in both timelines. The narration wasn’t good for me so definitely read the book!

4.5 ⭐

Allen Eskens has done it again with this wonderful novel that is both historical fiction and mystery/thriller. The story is told in dual timelines from war torn Bosnia to thirty years later in Minnesota.

Hana has lived in the shadows for years as a reserved librarian but must come out of hiding and become the gutsy heroine that she was so many years ago in Bosnia as she avenged her family's deaths.

This book was a quick read for me as I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! I highly recommend it to anyone that loves stories about strong women.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the advanced digital copy of the book.

Allen Eskens is hands down one of my favourite authors. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of his latest - The Quiet Librarian.

Hana works as a librarian and she keeps to herself. She dresses to hide, always with a sweater. When a police detective shows up and asks to speak to her, she knows that her past has finally caught up with the here and now. Someone knows who she is and what she's done.

Eskens interviewed survivors of the Bosnian War of 1990 who came to Minnesota as refugees. Their stories are woven into Eskens' fictional characters as well as time and place.

Eskens excels at storytelling. The concept, the setting, the history and ... Hana. The mystery was so well drawn - I was truly on the edge of my chair. The book is told in now and then chapters, guaranteed to keep up for 'just another' chapter. And no word of a lie, I had to put the book down many times as the danger overwhelmed me. I wanted a certain ending for Hana. Did I get one? You'll have to find out yourself. A brilliant read!

The Quiet Librarian is a very interesting look into The Bosnian War, a part of modern history that many of us never think about. I admit to not knowing much about it before reading this book.

This is the story of Hana Babic, a librarian in Minnesota who was once known as Nura Divjak. Hana’s closest friend , Amina, has just been murdered and Hana needs to uncover who killed her and if they are going to be coming for her next. The chapters alternate between Nura’s experience in Bosnia and Hana’s attempts to unravel the crime, sometimes working with the detective assigned to the case, and sometimes just using him for information. Through flashbacks, we learn that Nura’s entire family was slaughtered before her eyes and she swears to avenge them. It was her plan to simply murder those who killed her family, but she winds up fighting with a makeshift army and making quite a name for herself as a killer. Somewhere along the way, she meets Amina and she also emigrates to America.

There is a lot that I really liked about this story, but it didn’t grab me in the same way as a lot of books do. I love the historical fiction aspect of the story and was fascinated to learn more about the Bosnian War. I think if it had focused more on the historical fiction and less on the mystery/suspense it would have been more powerful. I also struggled to see Nura as a killer and felt that the relationship between Hana and Detective Clayton was too far fetched. Interesting concept, but only a 3 star read.

I'm not typically drawn to historical fiction, but I found this book to be quite engaging. I appreciated the dual timelines and how seamlessly they transitioned between the past and present. It's hard to fathom everything Hana endured, yet her resilience to keep moving forward is truly admirable.

This author is a master at his trait, I love reading his books, I read The Life We Bury years ago, and it was absolutely one of the best books I ever read. Since then, I have tried to read all his other books, which are all equally memorizing and hard to put down. If you have not read this book or the one I listed, you need to run not walk.

The present and the period of the Bosnian war alternate throughout this novel. As you read this book, you should, in my opinion, give yourself permission to relax because the past shapes the future. While reading this novel, I found myself crying multiple times.

The librarian who keeps to herself is Hana Babic. She is a Bosnian refugee. Peace is what she wants, since she has experienced unimaginable horrors. Even though we make every effort to forget the nightmares of our past, occasionally they nevertheless surface. If we're fortunate, we'll discover someone with whom we can share our darkest moments and get through them. As soon as Hana's best buddy from those she spent in Bosnia, is dead, the past starts to become too much life present day life.

In addition to providing us with an amazing protagonist to support, Mr. Eskens does a fantastic job of shedding light on aspects of that period. The author's portrayal of the terror of those times is so realistic that I doubt many of us can ever truly understand it.
Although it was a fantastic finish, it was not what I had anticipated!

Allen Eskens is known for his emotionally resonant mysteries, and The Quiet Librarian is no exception. This novel masterfully ties together past and present, telling the story of a seemingly unassuming librarian whose carefully guarded secrets come to light when her closest friend is found murdered. As an ambitious detective starts digging into the suspicious death, a compelling tale of love, loss, and the burden of the past unfolds.

What truly makes this novel shine is its characters. Eskens excels at writing complex, deeply human protagonists, and the librarian is no exception. Their quiet resilience and hidden pain make them incredibly compelling. The detective also adds an interesting dynamic—driven yet empathetic, providing the perfect contrast to the librarian’s reticence. Their relationship is one of the most engaging aspects of the book, shifting from curiosity to understanding in a beautifully organic way.

The Quiet Librarian is more than just a mystery—it’s a poignant exploration of the stories we keep hidden, the choices that define us, and the unexpected connections that change our lives.

What a well written, absorbing work of historical fiction and mystery! There are two settings and timelines, 1995 during the Bosnia-Serbian War in Bosnia, and Minnesota in the current time. Hana works hard to stay under the radar with plain clothing and a job in a library. When her best friend is murdered, Hana realizes her past has caught up with her. The chapters looking back at Hana aka Nura’s experiences of terror and loss are heartbreaking. As a policeman becomes involved with Hana through the investigation, complications arise as Hana tries to hide her past while solving the murder. This is a must read, bringing to light the horrendous history of the Bosnian-Serbian War. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

4.5/5
The Quiet Librarian has a little bit of it all! Historical fiction, love, suspense, sacrifice, vengeance! It's intense at times and very emotional.

Hana Babić is a 47 y/o librarian living a quiet life in Minnesota when Detective David Claypool delivers the news of her closest friend's death. And just like that, Hana is thrown back into the past she thought she left far behind.

With dual timelines, exploring a heartbreaking past in war-torn Bosnia and Hana's present-day quest to find her friend's killer, The Quiet Librarian is a riveting story of retribution and survival. I was fully invested from the unassuming start to the nail-biting end, and I will always appreciate learning more about time periods/events I am unfamiliar with. This mash-up of two of my favorite genres (historical fiction and thriller) was a winner for me!

Read this if you like:
- thrillers with a historical fiction twist
- stories of retribution
- dark secrets
- stories of love, survival, and sacrifice
- female friendship

An absolutely incredible novel with a dual timeline - modern day mystery thriller set in the US and historical fiction set in Bosnia in the 90s. I felt like I was reading several genres at once!
Hana is the main character and the author depicts her and her story beautifully in this well-written, fast-paced novel that I couldn’t put down. Highly recommend to all no matter what genres you read - it was just that good!!
Thank you to the author/publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

What a great story this was. I felt all kinds of emotions. Allen Eskens has become one of my favorite authors. Thank you for my gifted copy. My review will be shared on my Instagram account shortly.

Compelling, suspenseful, and fast-paced!

The Quiet Librarian is an intense, ominous tale that takes us into the life of Minnesota librarian Hana Babic who, after her best friend is murdered, prepares herself for the past to collide with the present when one of the depraved men she was brutalized by during the Bosnian war seems to have suddenly reappeared.

The prose is meticulous and tight. The characters are persistent, scarred, and resourceful. And the plot is a raw, menacing tale about life, loss, tragedy, danger, desperation, cruelty, secrets, survival, manipulation, betrayal, deception, revenge, violence, and wartime brutalities.

Overall, The Quiet Librarian is an absorbing, mysterious, disturbing tale by Eskens that does a wonderful job of interweaving historical facts and compelling fiction into an insightful, sinister tale that is intriguing, haunting, and highly entertaining.

“The Quiet Librarian,” by Allen Eskens, Mulholland Books, 320 pages, Feb. 18, 2025.

Hana Babic, 47, is a librarian in Minnesota who wants nothing more than to be left alone. Children call her The Sweater Lady.

But when St. Paul Detective David Claypool arrives with the news that her best friend, Amina Junuzovic, has been murdered, Hana knows that it is because of something from their mutual past. Amina was raising her grandson, Dylan Greene, 8, because his parents were killed in a boating accident.

The police know the women are from Bosnia. They don’t know that the two women were different people years ago. Thirty years before, Hana was Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia.

Serbian soldiers slaughtered Nura’s entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became a legend—the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head.
 
Now, someone is hunting Hana, and her friend has paid the price. Amina left Dylan in Hana’s care. To protect the child without revealing her secret, Hana must again become the Night Mora—and hope she can find the killer before the past comes for them, too.

Chapters of what happened in Bosnia alternate with chapters of the current time. It is fast-paced with well-drawn characters. The story is a sad but endearing tale, with a good ending. Hana is a character you won’t soon forget.

I rate it five out of five stars.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Reader, do not be deceived by the title of this book. It is not a cozy mystery. Rather, it is a grim historical novel involving the Balkan wars between 1992-95 and ethnic cleansing. Eskens mines an overlooked conflict in this dual timeline story. Hana Babic, a plain, mousy, 47-year-old librarian in Minnesota is contacted by Detective Claypool following the suspected suicide of her friend Amina. Hana is named guardian for Amina’s grandson, Dylan. Hana and Amina became close when both women were imprisoned in the rape camps of Bosnia.

Hana is in the USA under a false identity and is fearful of war criminals from 30 years ago discovering her and exacting revenge. Is that what happened to Amina? Will Serbian intelligence find Hana based on info extracted from Amina and/or her ransacked apartment?

The story alternatives between modern day Minnesota and Bosnia of the mid-1990s when a teenage Hana worked as a spy for Bosnian insurgents. Violent scenes are scattered throughout the book. The last mystery I read involving the Bosnian war was Scott Turow’s “Testimony.” With so much WWII fiction on the shelves, I appreciate authors who shed light on a lesser explored period of history.

This was ok. Very harrowing. Clunky in some parts and didn’t have anything to do with being a librarian. I appreciated the history included here but found the character development lacking in substance.

Despite this book being a stark departure from Eskens's other work, it was incredibly written as usual. Hana's story was difficult to read at times due to the dark nature of her past, but I could see the care and research Eskens put into this book, even the scenes which devastated me.

As a note to other fans of Allen Eskens, be clear about the content of the book before jumping in. The violence in this book can be hard to stomach, but the story is well worth reading both for the plot itself and for the insight into the real lives of Bosnian refugees. It is already the best book I've read in 2025, even if it is also the most heartbreaking.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the opportunity to read this ARC and provide an honest review.

Summary: Hana Babic is a quiet librarian, living a simple life alone in Minnesota. But when her friend Amina is killed, she must channel her prior life as the Night Mora, a deadly Bosnian fighter, in order to save those who matter most to her.

My take: This is a case where going in somewhat blind backfired on me! I only read the brief blurb that this was about a librarian with a dark past whose best friend is murdered, so I thought it would be a fun thriller about a creepy librarian. Nope! It was dark historical fiction. While historical fiction is not my favorite genre, I did learn a lot about the conflict between Bosnians and Serbs in the 1990s, which was interesting (albeit extremely sad). Unfortunately, though, the writing and character development was just too flat. The plot was dramatic enough to hold my interest, but I didn’t connect to the mainly two-dimensional characters. That being said, this book was very reminiscent of Kristin Hannah’s novels, so I do anticipate it being popular with readers and I’ll likely find myself recommending it regularly at the library!

Read this if: you like Kristin Hannah and/or you enjoy historical fiction with strong female characters.

Skip this if: character development and eloquent writing are important to you.

5 amazing stars

Allen Eskens is a writer who checks all the boxes for me. I’ve read all but one of his books. When I saw he had a new one coming, I couldn’t wait to read it. This one proves that he is a talented writer who can cross genres. This book is more historical fiction than a thriller/mystery, but it does have a few mysteries built in.

We meet mild-mannered, sweater-wearing Hana Babic, working in a Minnesota library, quietly leading a life where no one bothers or even looks at her. However, her past refuses to stay buried, and something evil has come to Minnesota. Hana’s best friend, Amina, is murdered, and Detective Claypool wants to know Hana’s connection to her.

The chapters alternate between modern times and the war in Bosnia. I haven’t read many books set during this time. These chapters were bleak with warfare, death, and genocide by the Serbians. These chapters were important in giving us a back story, but I appreciated the alternating because they were so bleak. What an awful time with so many tragic deaths. We meet Nura, who becomes a war hero and myth as she hunts down those who killed her family.

Amina has a grandson that she wanted Hana to care for if something happened to her. As Hana contemplates this responsibility, she knows that she must protect him from the world and Amina’s killer. Hana begins her quest to find the killer while Detective Claypool does the same.

I loved this one, with a strong female character who has triumphed over awful odds to build a new life. And now, she can reconcile with her past.

My thanks to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for an advanced copy of this novel.

The quiet librarian of the title is middle-aged Hana Babic, known as ‘the sweater lady’ because she frequently wears nondescript cardigans to work.
Hana has chosen to live as this librarian stereotype; it is the ‘cover ‘ that protects her from the demons of her former life, far from the peaceful Minnesota town where she works at the library and also owns a small farm.

The quiet librarian is actually Nura Divjak, who grew up amidst the horrors of the Bosnian war of the 1990s, when the Muslim minority was subjected to an ‘ethnic cleansing’ that saw the massacre of some 8000 men and boys at the hands of the Serbians with whom they had long coexisted peacefully.

Barely 14 when a group of Serbs attacked her family at their isolated mountain home, she witnessed the slaughter of her family from her hiding place, suffering serious burns to her arms when they torched the property. But she escaped alive and determined to avenge them. Her incredible feats put her on the Serbs’ ‘most wanted list.’ She barely escaped to the United States with an even younger girl, Amina, who had been made was a sex slave.

Once in the US, with a price placed on her head as a ‘war criminal,’ she changes her identity and the Night Mora (night witch as the Serbs called her), transforms into an invisible woman, keeping to herself except for her attachment to Amina and her family. Until something happens to Amina that calls back into her consciousness the ‘Iblis’ (devil) of their terrible youth. Then the quiet librarian must once again become a fearless guerilla warrior to protect the innocent.

Eskens tells a story that is at times hard to read, as he describes the brutality unleashed against innocent people in that war just for their Muslim faith. That it took place barely 30 years ago is also horrifying, in that few talk about that conflict any more, even while so many remain missing and unaccounted for. Although not himself part of that culture, Eskens writes stirringly about the war, and with compassion for the plight of the Bosnians and the refugees in America. The twist near the end is sudden, the resolution satisfying and unexpected. Most of all, he deftly draws the character of Hana/Nura as a woman of strength and resilience who denies her own feelings in order to survive, both then and now. Yet she is driven to save others even at the risk of losing her own life.

My jaw literally dropped during parts of this book. It was not only incredibly well written and researched, but I flew through it and was disappointed every time I had to put it down. The story follows Hana, a Bosnian refugee, who is looking for answers after her best friend was murdered. Hana discovers that she is really the one being hunted - and secrets from her past as the Night Mora, a part of the militia fighters, may come to the surface. A fascinating story about war-torn Bosnia, life in the USA as a refugee with a bounty over their head and how women are transformed by loss and war. The research was incredibly well done - I was able to picture just how horrible lives were. How loss can transform people to search for vengeance - becoming people that they struggle to recognize. Strong, incredible women who experienced an enormous amount of loss. And just how far people will go for the ones they love. A heartbreaking story that is impossible to put down.

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.