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.

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.