Genre
The best Historical Mystery books
Whodunits with period detail rendered concrete. Tudor London, Victorian Edinburgh, Napoleonic Spain, Belle Epoque Paris.
36 reviews in this genre.
Editor's picks
Highest-rated historical mystery on the shelf
Bury Me Deep
by Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott rewriting a real 1930s Phoenix murder case as a fever dream. Period noir with a feminist undertow.
The End of Everything
by Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott writing a thirteen-year-old's point of view as her best friend disappears. Quiet, devastating, almost too uncomfortable to recommend.
River Of Darkness
by Rennie Airth
The first John Madden mystery. Post-WWI English countryside, a returning detective, and a serial killer whose methods come straight from the trenches.
The Winter Queen
by Boris Akunin
The first Erast Fandorin novel. A young clerk in 1876 Moscow investigates an apparent suicide and falls down a labyrinth.
A Way With Widows
by Harold Adams
Another Carl Wilcox novel. Harold Adams at his most observational about how small communities deal with desire.
The Ditched Blonde
by Harold Adams
A mid-period Carl Wilcox novel. Harold Adams writing the Depression-era prairie with the kind of dry honesty that the form usually pretends to.
Hatchet Job
by Harold Adams
A mid-period Carl Wilcox mystery by Harold Adams. Depression-era South Dakota, an itinerant sign painter, and a community that knows how to keep its own counsel.
The Alphabet House
by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Adler-Olsen's pre-Department Q standalone. Two British airmen hiding in a Nazi psychiatric hospital. Very different from his crime novels.
Murder on the Leviathan
by Boris Akunin
Akunin doing locked-room mystery on a Suez-bound steamer in 1878. Multiple narrators, a French detective, and Fandorin in supporting position.
The Turkish Gambit
by Boris Akunin
Fandorin on the Russo-Turkish War. War-correspondent mystery with deep affection for Tolstoy.
The Death of Achilles
by Boris Akunin
The fourth Fandorin novel. Boris Akunin doing the political thriller, with a wonderful villain and the most action-heavy of the early entries.
Special Assignments
by Boris Akunin
Two Fandorin novellas in one volume. Akunin writing pastiche so well it stops being pastiche.
Death at Daisy's Folly
by Bill Albert
A Robin Paige Edwardian mystery set at Daisy Brooke's country house. Edward VII makes an appearance and Bill and Susan Albert keep the seams from showing.
The Price of Murder
by Bruce Alexander
The tenth (and posthumous) Sir John Fielding. Bruce Alexander's widow finished what he had begun, and the result is more graceful than continuation novels usually are.
Person or Persons Unknown
by Bruce Alexander
The fourth Sir John Fielding mystery. Bruce Alexander writing 18th century London with a magistrate going blind.
Jack Knave and Fool
by Bruce Alexander
The fifth Sir John Fielding mystery. The blind magistrate investigates a murder at the Drury Lane Theatre. Bruce Alexander at his most relaxed.
Color of Death
by Bruce Alexander
The seventh Sir John Fielding novel. Bruce Alexander on race, theft, and 1770s London. Quietly one of the strongest in the series.
Smuggler's Moon
by Bruce Alexander
The eighth Sir John Fielding. Bruce Alexander takes the blind magistrate to the Kentish coast for smuggling, dragoons, and the kind of countryside violence London does not see.
An Experiment in Treason
by Bruce Alexander
The ninth Sir John Fielding mystery. Benjamin Franklin makes a cameo. Bruce Alexander writing 1770s espionage at the official level.
And Only to Deceive
by Tasha Alexander
The first Lady Emily Ashton mystery. Victorian widow discovers her late husband's secret life among Greek antiquities.
A Poisoned Season
by Tasha Alexander
The second Lady Emily book. London Season jewel thefts and a Marie-Antoinette obsessive. Alexander hitting her stride.
A Fatal Waltz
by Tasha Alexander
The third Lady Emily mystery. Vienna, anarchist plots, and Lady Emily's most uncomfortable house-party investigation.
Malice at the Palace
by Rhys Bowen
Malice at the Palace by Rhys Bowen 2015 review. The ninth Royal Spyness mystery sends Lady Georgiana Rannoch to Kensington Palace to chaperone Princess Marina before her royal wedding.
The Chase
by Clive Cussler
The Chase by Clive Cussler 2007 review. A Van Dorn Detective Agency historical thriller set in 1906 about a bank robber called the Butcher Bandit and the man hunting him.
The Wrecker
by Clive Cussler
The Wrecker by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott 2009 review. Isaac Bell hunts a saboteur targeting the Southern Pacific Railroad in this second Van Dorn historical thriller.
A Murder in Thebes
by Paul C. Doherty
A Paul Doherty Alexander the Great mystery. Ancient Greek setting, careful research, a puzzle worth your evening.
Murder on a Midsummer Night
by Kerry Greenwood
Murder on a Midsummer Night by Kerry Greenwood 2008 review. The seventeenth Phryne Fisher Mystery sends the Honourable Miss Fisher chasing two cases at once in summer 1929 Melbourne.
Death at Whitechapel
by Bill Albert
A Robin Paige (Bill Albert co-writing as Bill and Susan) Victorian mystery. Charles and Kate Sheridan investigating Jack the Ripper aftershocks.
Tears of Pearl
by Tasha Alexander
The fourth Lady Emily mystery. Constantinople, harem politics, and Tasha Alexander's most ambitious setting to date.
Murder on the Lusitania
by Conrad Allen
The first Dillman and Masefield ocean-liner mystery. Conrad Allen setting up the formula on the real RMS Lusitania.
Murder on the Minnesota
by Conrad Allen
The third Dillman and Masefield mystery, this time on a Pacific crossing. Conrad Allen at his most relaxed.
Murder on the Caronia
by Conrad Allen
The fourth Dillman and Masefield. Cunard's newest liner, a music-hall act in steerage, and a body that should not have been found.
Murder on the Marmora
by Conrad Allen
The fifth Dillman and Masefield. Conrad Allen taking his ocean-liner detectives onto a P&O ship for the first time and getting more out of the change than expected.
Murder on the Salsette
by Conrad Allen
The sixth Dillman and Masefield. Bombay-to-London on the Salsette. Conrad Allen at his most relaxed and his most period-comfortable.
The House of Death
by Paul C. Doherty
A Paul Doherty Alexander the Great mystery. Murder in a Persian palace. Reliable historical fair-play procedural.
The Godless Man
by Paul C. Doherty
A Paul Doherty Alexander the Great mystery set after Issus. Persian temple intrigue and an investigator pushed beyond his usual comforts.
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