Fiction - Mystery & Detective - Historical

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...

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...

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...

July, 1955. Fellow writer Alastair Endicott has requested Donald Langham's help in discovering what happened to his father Edward, who has disappeared without trace from inside his locked study. The elder Endicott had been researching a biography of the notorious Satanist Vivien Stafford. Could...

In disgrace with her aristocratic in-laws, recently widowed Lady Fieldhurst is exiled to Scotland with her three young nephews in tow. On impulse, she and the boys decide to stay at an isolated seaside inn under an assumed name, where they can enjoy a...

Will Anderson and Elizabeth Hume get caught up in the political turmoil over women's suffrage in Detroit Shuffle, the fourth book in D. E. Johnson's critically acclaimed 1910s Detroit series Will Anderson inadvertently breaks up a key suffrage rally when he thwarts a gunman...

Frankie McKeller hates the beach. He has ever since that day on the one they called Omaha. If the guy who saved his life during the war wasn't getting married he'd never have made the trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. As a low...

When a man offers 1940s private investigator Maggie Sullivan twice her usual fee to look into a "possible" jewelry theft from his hotel safe, she's skeptical - until a maid's body tumbles out of a trash can and a jeweler known for high quality...

In 1875, Detective Lysander Hughes is hired by Colonel George Custer to investigate the murder of an officer in the Seventh Cavalry. Lysander goes undercover as an enlisted man to find the killer, who is believed to have been one of the officer's men....

"A mesmerizing mystery. Not only does Ryan provide readers with a tightly wound, suspenseful novel peopled with multidimensional characters, she writes about an era whose problems mirror our own. This is a historical period she knows and brings to life so clearly that readers...

"Nell is one of the strongest, most honorable, and dearest heroines to grace the pages of an amateur sleuth novel.... P.B. Ryan knows how to write a tale that will grip and keep readers' interest throughout the novel." -Midwest Book Reviews Nell Sweeney, a...

Returning to London after his honeymoon (For Deader or Worse), Bow Street Runner John Pickett soon discovers wedded bliss is not without its pitfalls, as he finds it galling to be financially dependent on Julia, his aristocratic bride. When he is summoned to the...

The eighth book in the series finds John Pickett bound for England's scenic Lake District, where an unsigned letter has summoned him for an unspecified reason. Posing as a honeymoon couple, Pickett and his wife Julia, the former Lady Fieldhurst, take a room at...

From the No.1 bestselling author of The American Boy and The Silent Boy comes a brand new historical thriller set during the time of the Great Fire of London. The first of an exciting new series of novels.A city destroyed.A killer exposed.London,1666. The Great...

Vivid characterizations, searing descriptions, and a twisty plot make Sheldon Russell's The Hanging of Samuel Ash a gripping read. Railroad bull Hook Runyon and his dog, Mixer, are chasing persistent pickpockets on the Santa Fe line, when Hook is called to investigate a malfunctioning...

AN ARTHUR ELLIS AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL In the scorching, drought-plagued summer of 1934, as wildfires burn across Utah, Detective Lieutenant Art Oveson faces a unique assignment. Salt Lake City's mayor has tapped him to revive the Anti-Polygamy Squad, a unit formed years...

Will Rees feels at home. It's been a long time since he last felt this way--not since before his wife died years ago and he took to the road as a traveling weaver. Now, in 1796, Rees is back on his Maine farm, living...

With the country in the midst of World War II, you can be sure the small town of Elderberry, Georgia, will pull together to find a missing child. And you can be equally certain that first-grade teacher, Miss Dimple Kilpatrick, will be in the...

In In the Shadows of Paris, the fifth installment in this c'est magnifique Victor Legris series by Claude Izner, a murderer is at large in belle-epoque Paris. In the turbulent Parisian summer of 1893, Victor Legris has vowed to his fianc馥 to give up...