Fiction - Mystery & Detective - Historical

Night Work: the second book in David C. Taylor's transporting historical crime fiction series.Michael Cassidy, a New York cop plagued by dreams that sometimes come true, escorts a prisoner accused of murder to Havana on the cusp of Fidel Castro's successful revolution against the...

Night Work: the second book in David C. Taylor's transporting historical crime fiction series. Michael Cassidy, a New York cop plagued by dreams that sometimes come true, escorts a prisoner accused of murder to Havana on the cusp of Fidel Castro's successful revolution against...

Portland, 1868. It is a rough hewn place, an exploding trading post that has dreams of becoming a metropolis. Horace Stratton, one of Portland's wealthiest heirs, has decided to come home for good after amassing yet another fortune in Shanghai. With him comes his...

PI Nathan Heller returns in Bye Bye, Baby, as Max Allan Collins brings to life a vivid star-studded cast, from JFK and RFK to Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford, from Jimmy Hoffa and Joe DiMaggio to Hugh Hefner and Sam Giancana. This is a...

The Body Snatchers Affair: The latest in the Carpenter and Quincannon historical mystery series set in 1890's San Francisco from Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini. Two missing bodies and two separate investigations take Carpenter and Quincannon from the heights above San Francisco Bay to...

It is the time of Arthur, but this is not his storied epic. Arthur is a young and powerful warrior who some would say stands on the brink of legend. Britain's leaders have come to elect a new supreme king, and Arthur is favored....

Winner of the Bruce Alexander Award for Best Historical Mystery Catherine LeVendeur is a creature of 12th century France whose life is a mirror of her times--but she is armed with a keen mind and lively curiosity. When Catherine's grandfather sends for his family...

The ever-irresistible Irene Adler, her dashing barrister husband, Godfrey Norton, and the indomitable Miss Nell Huxleigh have arrived at last as their French cottage-having survived dastardly plots, Russian spies, pistol-wielding criminals, and the occasional cobra. The happy trio seeks nothing but rest and peace-but...

Winner of the American Mystery Award for Best Novel of Romantic Suspense, and the Romantic Times Award for Best Historical Mystery Miss Irene Adler, the beautiful American opera singer who once outwitted Sherlock Holmes, is also a superb detective, as Oscar Wilde and Bram...

A Catherine LeVendeur mystery Catherine LeVendeur is a creature of twelfth-century France. Her life is a mirror of that time but she is a unique spirit, determined to make her way in the world and armed with a keen mind and a curiosity that...

Henry David Thoreau leaves the seclusion of Walden Pond to help investigate a series of murders in the first in B. B. Oak's fascinating new historical mystery series, set against the bucolic backdrop of 19th century New England.The lush, overgrown banks of Massachusetts's Assabet...

Traveling secretary and dilettante detective Hattie Davish is bringing her talents to a small New England town whose wealthy residents have more secrets than they do money. . .When Hattie Davish's job takes her to Newport, Rhode Island, she welcomes the opportunity for a...

Traveling secretary Hattie Davish and her trusty typewriter alight on a small town in Illinois, where the Civil War may long be over, but certain mysteries refuse to be buried. . .Hattie Davish is delighted to be ably assisting her wealthy employer, Sir Arthur...

1325: England is a hotbed of paranoia under the reign of the increasingly unpredictable Edward II and his lover, Sir Hugh le Despenser. When the Queen's lady-in-waiting is slaughtered and a man's body, hideously mutilated, is discovered behind the throne, the King demands to...

When a merchant in Exeter hears an intruder in his home one night, his first thought is to conceal his adulterous lover. But then he witnesses a sinister figure stooping over the bed of his only child, a figure who seems to vanish into...

Forty years ago, Exeter Cathedral close was the scene of a vicious ambush. Afterwards, the bodies left lying in their blood bore witness to the conflicts tearing at heart of the Cathedral itself. Today, in 1323, more deaths have occurred. Is the first an...

For the twentieth anniversary of the start of the Matthew Bartholomew series, Sphere is delighted to reissue all of the medieval monk's cases with beautiful new series-style covers. ------------------------------------ The winter of 1353 has been appallingly wet, there is a fever outbreak amongst the...

Once again, Gregory brings to bear her extraordinary ability to paint a period picture of London in all its grimness and grittiness. Hats off to the lady! - Daily Mail --------------------------- The ninth adventure for Chaloner sees the Restoration London spy foil a conspiracy...

'To shoot a man on the spur of the moment in the presence of the king and his court, not to mention the cardinal and his household, that took a boldness ... Or utter despair.' HAMPTON COURT, 1522. Lawyer Hugh Mac Egan has arrived...

'And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works'Book of Revelation, 20:131217: Commoner-turned-earl's-man Edwin Weaver joins the earl's army as...

1217: The war for the throne of England is far from over but as commoner-turned-earl's-man Edwin Weaver waits to see where his lord's loyalties lie, a messenger arrives from Roche Abbey: one of the monks has been murdered. The abbot needs help to find...

1217: Commoner-turned-earl's-man Edwin Weaver has returned to Conisbrough Castle after his blood-soaked adventure in Lincoln. Now carrying a dagger for protection, he has no chance to rest, for preparations are already underway for a noble wedding. But his weapon will be little help against...

York, 1907. Newly retired Inspector Faro is delighted at the prospect of staying in the Dower House, situated on a Roman villa once home to Emperor Severus. But he arrives to find his wife Imogen distraught and desperately searching for her missing Irish cousin,...

A lone German bomber crosses the east coast of Britain on a moonless night in the long, hot summer of 1940. The pilot picks up the silver thread of a river and, following it to his target, drops his bomb over Cambridge's rail yards....

1861, East Anglia. Alone in a first-class carriage, the Swarbricks are robbed at gunpoint, but when the universally-admired Swarbrick fights back, the train robber takes more than money and jewellery, killing the man working to unify East Anglia's tangle of railway networks. Inspector Colbeck...

1817. Dawn breaks on a summer's day in Chalk Farm, London, and the scene is set for a duel between a lady's two ardent admirers. Paul Skillen has been teaching Mark Bowerman how to shoot properly and, although he is not sanguine of his...

Pentonville Prison. Wally Hubbard is serving a long sentence for arson. But after befriending and tricking one of the officers, Hubbard makes an audacious escape. Inspector Marmion, the detective who arrested Hubbard, is warned to watch his back, but it seems that Hubbard has...

1860, Wimborne, Dorset. Rebecca Tullidge, miserably married to her callous husband, is having an affair with a railway officer, who she finds dead on the railway tracks. Determined to win votes for the upcoming election of mayor, Mr Feltham calls for Inspector Colbeck and...

Young Imogen Burnhope and her maid Rhoda board a non-stop train to Oxford to visit her Aunt Cassandra, who waits on the platform at Oxford station where the train terminates, to greet them. Only they never arrive. All the passengers alight but the two...

A scurrilous newspaper has built up a large following by publishing details of political and sexual scandals. It is remarkably well-informed and has therefore created a whole host of enemies. When the editor is killed and the printing press smashed to bits, the Invisible...

January 1916. Britain is on the brink of enforcing conscription. Eligible young men who have not yet signed up to fight are despised as 'conchies' and 'shirkers', subjected to hatred and verbal abuse. Cyril Ablatt, leader of Shoreditch's group of conscientious objectors, makes a...

1857. Joel Heygate is the popular stationmaster at Exeter St David's railway station. So when the charred remains of a body are discovered in the embers of the town's annual Bonfire Night celebration, everyone is horrified to discover that they belong to Mr Heygate.Inspector...

Spring, 1858. The route of the Caledonian Railway through the southern uplands of the Scottish countryside is disrupted by a fatal crash. Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming are called from the crime of London to investigate, and must contend with old enemy...

May 1915. As zeppelin bombs fall on London and with the sinking of the Lusitania, anti-German hysteria reaches fever pitch and attacks on German immigrants surge. Not even the West End of London is immune. Jacob Stein's bespoke tailoring business comes under brutal attack,...

1857. On the LNWR train to London, a criminal is being escorted to his appointment with the hangman. But the wily Jeremy Oxley, conman, thief and murderer, has one last ace up his sleeve - a beautiful and ruthless accomplice willing to do anything...

1854. As the Cardiff-bound train puffs out of Paddington Station, young Hugh Kellow wraps a protective arm around his large valise. He has been entrusted with a priceless silver coffee pot, designed in the shape of a locomotive, by his elderly silversmith employer. But...

By the Queen's command, she carried a letter that could alter the course of history -- or eclipse her own future.... Eager for a respite from her role as handmaiden to Queen Elizabeth I, Ursula Blanchard agrees to travel to France to help her...

December, AD39. While enjoying the Winter Festival holiday at his adopted daughter's home in the Alban Hills, Marcus Corvinus discovers that an outwardly respectable pillar of the community, local politician Quintus Caesius has been discovered beaten to death at the rear entrance of the...

"An outstanding entry in an excellent historical-mystery series that deserves more attention"Booklist Starred Review Detective Inspector Tom Harper finds answers hard to come by in his latest, most challenging, investigation to date. Leeds, England. March, 1895. The day after his release from prison, petty...

1394, London. Crispin Guest, Tracker of London, is enjoying his ale in the Boar's Tusk tavern - until a stranger leaves a mysterious wrapped bundle on his table, telling him, "You'll know what to do." Inside is an ancient leather-bound book written in an...

Benjamin January heads to the "Slaveholders' Republic" of Texas to locate a kidnapped girl and help a woman who saved him from the noose. April, 1840. Benjamin January knows no black person in their right mind would willingly go to the Republic of Texas...

"Brings a creepy new note to Spencer's long-running series" Kirkus Reviews The discovery of a body on a local allotment site re-opens an unresolved cold case for Monika Paniatowski and her team. He was going to have to terminate Monika, he decided. It was...

A clever plot, two engaging sleuths, plenty of period ambience, and a satisfying ending make this a fine choice for all mystery collections Booklist Introducing private investigators Lily Raynor and Felix Wilbraham in the first of the brand-new World's End Bureau Victorian mystery series....

Leeds, 1820. Simon Westow, a Leeds thief-taker, knows all about lost property. But when he is asked to find the kidnapped daughter of a successful Leeds businessman, Simon and his assistant, Jane, face a challenge like no other. Could the answers lie within the...

'A thought-provoking plot, and an affecting and powerful conclusion make this one of Clare's best' - Booklist Starred Review Physician-sleuth Dr Gabriel Taverner uncovers dark secrets in his small Devon village in the second of this intriguing historical mystery series. June, 1604. When the...

Apprentice healer Lassair heads on a perilous journey north in the absorbing new Aelf Fen medieval mystery. October, 1093. Two young men have been brutally beaten to death; a third viciously attacked. All three men are of similar appearance. But could there be another...

Sir Josse d'Aquin is summoned to assist the beleaguered King John in the 17th - and final - Hawkenlye mystery. September, 1216. A foreign army has invaded England. The country is divided. Some support the rebel barons and Prince Louis of France; others remain...

DCI Paniatowski's team suspect a murder is the result of ritual killing, carried out by a secret society. But DCI Dixon treats it as a mere domestic murder. So Meadows, Crane and Beresford risk their careers to uncover the truth. Meanwhile, Monika knows killer...

Cork, Ireland, 1923. When Reverend Mother Aquinas discovers a body at the gate of the convent chapel, she immediately sends for her former pupil, Police Sergeant Patrick Cashman, to investigate. Dead bodies are not unusual in the poverty-stricken slums, but this one is dressed...

Benjamin January is forced to travel to Haiti to seek his family's lost treasure, in order to save everything he holds dear When Jefferson Vitrack - the white half-brother of Benjamin January's wife - turns up on January's doorstep in the summer of 1838...