I admit it. I have a special weakness for historical mysteries and thrillers. The following list of more than 200 such novels will certainly prove the point. They’re divided into three sections, beginning with my selection of the top 10 novels. (Well, there are actually 11. I could’t resist adding one later.) Immediately below that section are the 100 books in 14 series of historical mysteries and thrillers reviewed on this site (including only those series in which I’ve read at least three books). More than 100 individual titles follow further below. Within each section, the books are listed in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names.
This post was updated on September 3, 2024.
Many of the titles in the series listed below might individually qualify for the list of my favorites, but I’ve arbitrarily chosen to omit them. Although I’ve loved reading the books in nearly all these series, I confess that Olen Steinhauer’s Yalta Boulevard cycle is my favorite among them.
Please note that I’m including here only those historical mysteries and thrillers reviewed on this site that have been written long after the events described. For example, even though such novels as A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler or many of the works of Ross Thomas concern events that are now long in the past, they were written either at or shortly after the time portrayed. I’ve also attempted to avoid those that refer to historical events through flashbacks. (If I’d included those titles as well, this list would be considerably longer.)
A final caveat: I do NOT maintain that these are the very best historical mysteries and thrillers ever written. These lists include ONLY those books I’ve read cover to cover and enjoyed.
The top 10 historical mysteries and thrillers reviewed here
Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron – A brilliant novel of love, hope, and the Rwanda genocide
The Rwanda genocide is the central event in Running the Rift, a remarkable novel that tells the story of a young Tutsi man, Nkuba Jean Patrick, a supremely talented runner who aspires to compete in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The tale begins when Jean Patrick is a boy just beginning to detect his gift, and it explores his life, and the reality he experienced, in the years of increasing violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, through the terrible trials of 1994, and for several years afterward. Read the review.
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict—Where did Agatha Christie go when she disappeared?
On Friday, December 3, 1926, Agatha Christie vanished from her home in Berkshire. Eleven days later, a banjo player entertaining at the hotel in Harrogate where she was staying recognized her from the photos he’d seen in the extensive press coverage of her disappearance. After all, the story had been splashed over front pages for more than a week, with abundant photo coverage. And more than one thousand police officers were searching for her. The entertainer tipped off the police, who soon arrived with her husband, Colonel Archibald Christie, in tow. But Mrs. Christie would not or could not explain what she’d been doing for the past eleven days. And the mystery has never been solved. But author Marie Benedict has taken a crack at an explanation of Agatha Christie’s disappearance in her fiendishly clever historical novel, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie. Read the review.
The Devils of Cardona by Matthew Carr – A gripping historical thriller set in 16th-century Spain
This gripping historical thriller is set in 1594, more than a century after Ferdinand and Isabella set in motion the Spanish Inquisition. Six years earlier, the English had destroyed the Spanish Armada with the aid of a massive storm. But Spain still reigned as the world’s most powerful nation. The Spanish Empire covered all of Central and South America, much of North America and the Caribbean, a wide swath of North Africa, the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, and a chunk of Central Europe. And throughout Spain and the New World territories, the Inquisition competed with civil authorities for supremacy. This is the historical backdrop to Matthew Carr’s engrossing and well-researched new novel. Read the review.
The Historians by Cecilia Ekbäck—A spellbinding WWII thriller set in neutral Sweden
1943. Sweden. In a Sami village in the country’s far north, a region called Lappland, a thirteen-year-old girl goes missing while setting traps for rabbits near an iron mine. She is far from the first of her tribe to vanish on the mountain. Meanwhile, the daughter of the foreman at that mine, a university graduate student in history, is brutally tortured and murdered in the distant south. Her best friend, now employed in a trusted government post, sets out to learn who killed her. And the personal secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs uncovers evidence indicating that his boss is involved in secret discussions he is desperate to cover up. These are the three tracks along which this exceedingly clever and compelling WWII thriller winds its way to a conclusion. Read the review.
The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming – A stellar new spy story
Much of the latter-day literature of espionage is based, directly or indirectly, on the notorious Cambridge Five—young, bright Cambridge men seduced by the lure of Communism as undergraduates during the tumultuous 1930s who spied for the Soviet Union during World War II. Their defection to the USSR following the war created what was arguably the greatest spy scandal in modern history. For many years thereafter, rumors of a “sixth man” continued to roil the waters of the British Secret Intelligence Service. The Trinity Six relates an ingenious story about that sixth man and his longer and even more consequential career. Read the review.
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich – Tragedy, on and off the reservation
Just try to imagine a novel that encompasses all these elements: a lynching on an Indian reservation, a young woman’s lesbian awakening, a man’s kidnapping of his wife, a multiple murder, a collection of rare postage stamps, a dim-witted Catholic priest, a rape, a twisted messianic preacher, a valuable violin, a woman’s murder of her husband, a tragic automobile crash, and an extended stay in a mental hospital. If a novel is a work of fiction in which “something happens,” as Joseph Heller once suggested, Louise Erdrich’s novel, The Plague of Doves, has the makings of at least a dozen books. Yet somehow it all works, through the magic of Erdrich’s surpassing genius. Read the review.
An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris – The Dreyfus Affair, reenacted in a suspenseful spy novel
The Dreyfus Affair. In the closing years of the nineteenth century and for decades thereafter, that notorious case was seen as indelible a stain on the veneer of European civilization as the Holocaust came to represent a half-century later. A Jewish officer in the French Army was convicted of treason on trumped-up charges and relegated to solitary confinement on the notorious Devil’s Island for several years before a courageous fellow officer uncovered the truth and, with the help of the country’s most famous writer, forced it onto the consciousness of an unhappy nation. Dreyfus was only exonerated and restored to the rank of major in the French Army in 1906, twelve years after his conviction. Robert Harris retells the story as a tale of espionage that’s hard to put down. Read the review.
A Cold Red Sunrise (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov #5) by Stuart M. Kaminsky—A historical mystery about a murder above the Arctic Circle
Stuart Kaminsky won the Edgar for Best Novel for A Cold Red Sunrise, and it’s easy to see why. The four books that precede it in his long-running series featuring Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov are all excellent. But he outdoes himself with this fascinating excursion into a murder above the Arctic Circle. We follow Rostnikov 2,000 miles east of Moscow to the frozen wastes of a tiny Siberian village in 1987. There, surprise piles atop surprise. Meanwhile, we gain insight into the dysfunction of the Soviet state and learn about the indigenous culture of the area. It’s a tour de force, surely among the best novels in the detective genre. Read the review.
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver – Leon Trotsky, Diego Rivera, and the Red Scare
The protagonist of The Lacuna is Harrison Shepherd, a writer of best-selling historical romance novels set in the empires of the Aztecs and the Maya. Born shortly after World War I, son of a minor American federal official and a desperate Mexican woman who sees him as a mealticket, Shepherd crosses borders to become a first-hand witness to the Bonus Army march and encampment in Washington under Herbert Hoover, the rise to fame of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, the assassination of Leon Trotsky, and the slow, painful unfolding of the Red Scare that seized hold of the United States in the early years of the Cold War. The Lacuna is crammed with unforgettable portraits of historic figures, including Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky. Read the review.
The Debba by Avner Mandelman – A superb novel digs for roots in Israel’s modern history
The Debba, though framed as a murder mystery (and an excellent one at that), is a serious fictional inquiry into this roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the view of its author, Avner Mandelman, it’s also an examination of “necessary evil,” the manipulations and assassinations and kidnappings that governments carry out in the name of national security. Mandelman, a short-story writer who divides his time among Canada, California, and Paris, was born in Israel and served in the Israeli Air Force in the 1967 Six Days’ War that established the boundaries within which Israel allegedly lives today. He is well qualified to explore both questions. Read the review.
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen – The Vietnam War through Vietnamese eyes
The Sympathizer opens in April 1975 as troops of the North Vietnamese army and the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) are closing in on Saigon. The remnants of the American mission and many thousands of South Vietnamese officials and other collaborators are frantically fighting to claim the few remaining spaces on American airplanes available for the evacuation. In the midst of this chaos we meet the narrator, a captain in the South Vietnamese army. He introduces himself this way in the opening line of his account: “I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.” He is, in fact, the Sympathizer of the title—a secret agent of the NLF actually living in the home of the General who commands the South Vietnamese security police, the Special Branch. Read the review.
100 novels in 14 series of historical mysteries and thrillers
The John Madden series by Rennie Airth, set in England between the wars:
- River of Darkness (John Madden #1) – Rennie Airth’s John Madden series spans the world wars
- The Blood-Dimmed Tide (John Madden #2)—A fascinating historical mystery novel
- The Dead of Winter (John Madden #3) —A gripping World War II English police procedural
- The Reckoning (John Madden #4)– A terrific John Madden procedural
- The Death of Kings (John Madden #5)– Solving a cold case in post-war England
- The Decent Inn of Death (John Madden #6)—Retired Scotland Yard detectives face off with a suspected war criminal
Benjamin Black’s Quirke series set in 1950s Dublin:
- Christine Falls (Quirke #1) – Corruption and mayhem in Dublin and Boston in a superior mystery novel
- The Silver Swan (Quirke #2) – A suspenseful novel that will keep you guessing until the end
- Elegy for April (Quirke #3) – 1950s Dublin: murder and the Church
- A Death in Summer (Quirke #4) – Murder in Dublin, and an unconventional sleuth who solves the case
- Vengeance (Quirke #5) – Is it “serious literature?”
- Holy Orders (Quirke #6) – A mystery to savor for its gorgeous prose
- Even the Dead (Quirke #7) – Dublin’s answer to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson?
- April in Spain (Quirke #8) – Quirke is back in a new historical murder mystery
- The Lock-Up (Quirke #9) – Quirke is on a collision course with the Church—again
The Hannah Vogel novels by Rebecca Cantrell set in Nazi Germany:
- A Trace of Smoke (Hannah Vogel #1) – Crime in the underbelly of Nazi-era Germany
- A Night of Long Knives (Hannah Vogel #2) – An historical crime novel that’s good but not good enough
- A Game of Lies (Hannah Vogel #3)—Undercover at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
- A City of Broken Glass (Hannah Vogel #4)—The Hannah Vogel series spans the history of Nazi Germany
The Night Soldiers novels of Alan Furst set in WWII-era Europe:
- Red Gold (Night Soldiers #5) – A brilliant novel of the French Resistance
- Kingdom of Shadows (Night Soldiers #6)– One of the best spy novels of recent years
- Blood of Victory (Night Soldiers #7) – Spies at work in WWII Istanbul and Rumania
- Dark Voyage (Night Soldiers #8)—A gripping spy story set on a ocean freighter in World War II
- The Foreign Correspondent (Night Soldiers #9) – A superb historical espionage novel
- Spies of the Balkans (Night Soldiers #11) – Alan Furst’s superb novel, “Spies of the Balkans”
- Mission to Paris (Night Soldiers #12) – At the dawn of World War II, a Hollywood film star in an espionage novel
- Midnight in Europe (Night Soldiers #13) – Arms merchants and spies in a thriller set during the Spanish Civil War
- A Hero of France (Night Soldiers #14) – Vive la Resistance!
- Under Occupation (Night Soldiers #15) – Alan Furst on the French Resistance
The Alex Gerlis spy stories set in Europe during World War II:
- The Best of Our Spies – An extraordinary World War II spy story grounded in historical fact
- The Swiss Spy – World War II spies in Switzerland
- Vienna Spies – A stirring tale of spies in wartime Vienna
- The Berlin Spies – The best spy novelist you’ve never read
John Grisham’s Jake Brigance novels:
- Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance #2)—The belated sequel to John Grisham’s breakthrough first novel
- A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance #3)—John Grisham revisits Clanton, Mississippi in a gripping courtroom thriller
- Sparring Partners (Jake Brigance #4)—John Grisham shows lawyers behaving badly
Stuart M. Kaminsky’s Inspector Rostnikov novels set in the USSR:
- Death of a Dissident (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov #1) — A grim murder mystery set in the USSR
- Black Knight in Red Square (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov #2) — The collapse of the USSR is underway in this detective novel
- Red Chameleon (Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov #3) — A Russian police procedural set in the Soviet Union
- A Fine Red Rain (Porfiry Rostnikov #4) — In Gorbachev’s Russia, corruption and a serial killer
- A Cold Red Sunrise (Porfiry Rostnikov #5) — A historical mystery about a murder above the Arctic Circle
- The Man Who Walked Like a Bear (Porfiry Rostnikov #6)—An honest detective confronts reality in Soviet Russia
- Rostnikov’s Vacation (Porfiry Rostnikov #7)—A government conspiracy in the tumult of the Gorbachev era
- Death of a Russian Priest (Porfiry Rostnikov #8)—A puzzling Russian murder mystery set in Yeltsin’s time
- Hard Currency (Porfiry Rostnikov #9)—A Russian detective on a murder case in Castro’s Cuba
- Blood and Rubles (Porfiry Rostnikov #10)—Crime and corruption in Boris Yeltsin’s Russia
- Tarnished Icons (Porfiry Rostnikov #11)—A brilliant police procedural set in 1996 Moscow
Joseph Kanon’s post-WWII novels of espionage:
- The Prodigal Spy– An espionage novelist to rival John Le Carre
- Alibi– A Nazi-hunter in post-war Venice in a suspenseful novel of intrigue
- Stardust – German emigres in Hollywood in a captivating historical novel
- Leaving Berlin – One of the best of today’s spy novels
- Istanbul Passage – Romance, intrigue, and betrayal in post-World War II Istanbul
- The Good German — The cost of total war was clear in Berlin after World War II
- The Berlin Exchange — An ingenious tale about a spy swap in East Berlin
Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series set in the World War II era:
- March Violets (Bernie Gunther #1) – A vivid snapshot of Nazi Berlin
- The Pale Criminal (Bernie Gunther #2) – A serial killer in Nazi Germany
- A German Requiem (Bernie Gunther #3) – Another excellent novel in the Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr
- The One from the Other (Bernie Gunther #4) – An anti-Nazi detective in Hitler’s Germany
- A Quiet Flame (Bernie Gunter #5) – An eye-opening detective novel about Nazis in Argentina
- If the Dead Rise Not (Bernie Gunther #6) – Bernie Gunther from Hitler’s Germany to Batista’s Cuba
- Field Gray (Bernie Gunther #7) – Bernie Gunther’s life in flashbacks
- Prague Fatale (Bernie Gunther #8) – A hard-boiled detective in Nazi Germany
- A Man Without Breath (Bernie Gunther #9) – Mass murder in the Katyn Forest
- The Lady from Zagreb (Bernie Gunther #10) – Cynicism and romanticism in Nazi Germany
- The Other Side of Silence (Bernie Gunther #11) – An exciting chapter in the Bernie Gunther saga
- Prussian Blue (Bernie Gunther #12) – Bernie Gunther confronts top Nazis and the Stasi
- Greeks Bearing Gifts (Bernie Gunther #13) – Philip Kerr’s last Bernie Gunther novel?
- Metropolis (Bernie Gunther #14) — As a young detective, Bernie Gunther investigates murder in the Weimar Republic
Vaseem Khan’s Malabar House series:
- Midnight at Malabar House (Malabar House #1) – A compelling murder mystery set in India after Partition)
- The Dying Day (Malabar House #2) – A baffling mystery based on ciphers
- The Lost Man of Bombay (Malabar House #3) – A baffling murder mystery in post-Independence India
- Death of a Lesser God (Malabar House #4) – Murder in the shadow of Partition
Dennis Lehane’s Boston thrillers:
- Live by Night (Coughlin #2) – A thoughtful, action-packed crime story
- World Gone By (Coughlin #3) – Suspenseful historical fiction that’s hard to put down
- The Drop—A short crime novel about Boston’s lowlife by a master of the genre
- Small Mercies—When the cracks opened wide in Boston society
Sujata Massey’s 1920s-era Bombay mysteries:
- The Widows of Malabar Hill (Perveen Mistry #1)—The first woman lawyer in Bombay solves a baffling mystery
- The Satapur Moonstone (Perveen Mistry #2)—A murder mystery set in colonial India highlights the princely states
- The Bombay Prince (Perveen Mistry #3)—Murder in Bombay during the Indian independence movement
- The Mistress of Bhatia House (Perveen Mistry #4)—Fighting crime in Bombay a century ago
The Wyndham and Banerjee series by Abir Mukherjee, set in 1920s Calcutta
- A Rising Man—A brilliant historical detective novel set in India following World War I
- A Necessary Evil—A royal murder in colonial India with hundreds of suspects
- Smoke and Ashes—A brilliantly constructed murder mystery set in colonial Calcutta
- Death in the East—A murder mystery in the British Raj
- The Shadows of Men—A superb historical mystery series set in 1920s India
Ellis Peters’s Brother Cadfael series, set in 12th-century England:
- A Morbid Taste for Bones (Brother Cadfael #1) — Reviewing the first book in the delightful Brother Cadfael series
- One Corpse Too Many (Brother Cadfael #2) — Brother Cadfael, the perfect detective for the Middle Ages
- Monk’s Hood (Brother Cadfael #3) — Has human nature changed since Brother Cadfael’s time?
- Saint Peter’s Fair (Brother Cadfael #4) — The Cadfael Chronicles highlight the history of medieval England
- The Leper of St. Giles (Brother Cadfael #5)—Brother Cadfael stars in a gripping medieval murder mystery
- The Virgin in the Ice (Brother Cadfael #6)—Organized crime medieval style, in a complex Brother Cadfael mystery
- The Sanctuary Sparrow (Brother Cadfael #7)—Unfamiliar language in this mystery set in 12th-century England
- The Devil’s Novice (Brother Cadfael #8)—A medieval mystery opens a window on 12th century England
- Dead Man’s Ransom (Brother Cadfael #9)—A baffling murder amid civil war in medieval England
Qiu Xiaolong’s Inspector Chen series set in 1990s Shanghai
- Death of a Red Heroine (Inspector Chen #1) by Qiu Xiaolong—A gripping Chinese police procedural
- A Loyal Character Dancer (Inspector Chen #2) by Qiu Xiaolong—In a Chinese murder mystery, the legacy of the Cultural Revolution looms large
- When Red Is Black (Inspector Chen #3) by Qiu Xiaolong—This gripping crime novel shows China in transition
The Captain Alexei Korolev novels by William Ryan, set in Stalin’s Soviet Union:
- The Holy Thief (Captain Alexei Korolev #1) – A terrific murder mystery set in Stalin’s Soviet Union
- The Darkening Field (Captain Alexei Korolev #2) – A compelling murder mystery set during Stalin’s terror
- The Twelfth Department (Captain Alexei Korolev #3) – An intimate look at Stalin’s terror
C. J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake books, set in the time of Henry VIII:
- Dissolution (Matthew Shardlake #1 of 7)—In 1536, a lawyer investigates a murder at a monastery
- Dark Fire (Matthew Shardlake #2 of 7)—King Henry VIII’s search for an ancient superweapon
- Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake #3 of 7)—A lawyer for the Crown in the time of Henry VIII
- Revelation (Matthew Shardlake #4 of 7)—Religious fanatics and other madmen in Tudor times
- Heartstone (Matthew Shardlake #5)—Two troubling legal cases in Henry VIII’s England
The Yalta Boulevard cycle from Olen Steinhauer, portraying Central Europe under Communism:
- The Bridge of Sighs (Yalta Boulevard #1) – A fully satisfying murder mystery set in post-war Europe
- The Confession (Yalta Boulevard #2) – An historical thriller set under Communism in Eastern Europe
- 36 Yalta Boulevard (Yalta Boulevard #3) – Inside the mind’s eye of Eastern European Communism in the 1960s
- Liberation Movements (Yalta Boulevard #4) – Love, betrayal, and terrorism behind the Iron Curtain
- Victory Square (Yalta Boulevard #5) – A powerful tale of life in Eastern Europe during the fall of Communism
Amy Stewart’s Kopp Sisters series
- Girl Waits with Gun (Kopp Sisters #1) by Amy Stewart—She was the country’s first female deputy sheriff
- Lady Cop Makes Trouble (Kopp Sisters #2) by Amy Stewart—A real lady cop a century ago in an excellent fact-based crime novel
- Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions (Kopp Sisters #3)—The lady cop who fascinated America a century ago
Paul Vidich’s engaging historical spy novels:
- An Honorable Man (The Cold War, the early CIA, and the McCarthy Era)
- The Good Assassin (A compelling spy novel by Paul Vidich set during the Cuban Revolution)
- The Coldest Warrior (Project MK-Ultra and the scientist who fell to his death)
- The Mercenary (A superb Cold War thriller from Paul Vidich)
- The Matchmaker: A Spy in Berlin – A dangerous spy game in Berlin before the fall of the Wall
- Beirut Station: Two Lives of a Spy (A compelling spy novel about living a double life)
The William Catesby series by Edward Wilson, set in Cold War Britain:
- The Darkling Spy (William Catesby #2)– A grim tale of Cold War espionage
- The Whitehall Mandarin (William Catesby #4)– Cold War espionage in search of the H-bomb
- A Very British Ending (William Catesby #5) – A harsh look at post-war British intelligence
Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs novels set in England between the world wars:
- Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs #1) – A female detective like no other
- Birds of a Feather (Maisie Dobbs #2) – The cost of war hangs over the action like a shroud
- Pardonable Lies (Maisie Dobbs #3) – Living the legacy of World War I
- Messenger of Truth (Maisie Dobbs #4) – Class resentment in Depression-era England
- An Incomplete Revenge (Maisie Dobbs #5) – The pleasures of reading Maisie Dobbs
- Among the Mad (Maisie Dobbs #6) – Shell shock, madness, the Great Depression
- The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs #7) – Another great detective novel from Jacqueline Winspear
- A Lesson in Secrets (Maisie Dobbs #8) – Nazis, pacifists, and spies in 1930s Britain
- Elegy for Eddie (Maisie Dobbs #9) – An excellent Maisie Dobbs novel
- Leaving Everything Most Loved (Maisie Dobbs #10) – Maisie Dobbs confronts class dynamics in Depression-era England
- A Dangerous Place (Maisie Dobbs #11) – Maisie Dobbs in “a place seething with those dispossessed by war”
- Journey to Munich (Maisie Dobbs #12)—Maisie Dobbs, now a secret agent, travels to Munich in 1938
- In This Grave Hour (Maisie Dobbs #13)—Learn about British life between the world wars from the Maisie Dobbs series
- To Die But Once (Maisie Dobbs #14)—Maisie Dobbs, Dunkirk, war profiteering, and the war at home in England
- The American Agent (Maisie Dobbs #15)—Maisie Dobbs pursues a killer in Britain during the Blitz
- The Consequences of Fear (Maisie Dobbs #16)—Maisie Dobbs investigates a murder involving British intelligence
- A Sunlit Weapon (Maisie Dobbs #17)—Maisie Dobbs meets Eleanor Roosevelt
- The Comfort of Ghosts (Maisie Dobbs #18) by Jacqueline Winspear—Farewell, Maisie Dobbs!
Four dozen other historical mysteries and thrillers reviewed here
Other historical mysteries and thrillers in series:
Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders by Tessa Arlen—A charming cozy mystery set during the Blitz
Snow by John Banville—John Banville launches a new detective series
The Second Rider (Inspector Emmerich #1) by Alex Beer—The debut of a rewarding series of detective novels set in Vienna after World War I
Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black—A suspenseful World War II espionage thriller set in Paris
The Pictures by Guy Bolton—A thriller about corruption in Hollywood during its Golden Era
To Shield the Queen (Ursula Blanchard #1) by Fiona Buckley—A worthy murder mystery set in the court of Queen Elizabeth I
His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae by Graeme Macrae Burnet—An unreliable narrator explains three brutal murders in 19th century Scotland
The Hot Country (Christopher Marlowe Cobb #1) by Robert Olen Butler—American vs German spies in the Mexican Revolution
The Star of Istanbul (Christopher Marlowe Cobb #2) by Robert Olen Butler—An American spy in World War I takes on the German Empire
The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler #1) by Caleb Carr – In a classic whydunit, The Alienist makes his debut
Murder by Misrule (Francis Bacon Mystery #1) by Anna Castle—A lawyer is murdered in the Elizabethan Age
Death by Disputation (Francis Bacon #2) by Anna Castle—Religious conflict in Elizabethan England fuels this gripping spy story
The Coroner’s Lunch (Dr. Siri Paiboun #1) by Colin Cotterill – A murder mystery set in Communist Laos in the 1970s
The Rat Catchers’ Olympics (Dr. Siri Paiboun #12), by Colin Cotterill – Dr. Siri Paiboun and the rat catchers at the 1980 Moscow Olympics
The Spanish Game (Alec Milius #2) by Charles Cumming – Intrigue and romance in Madrid in the waning days of Basque terrorism
Berlin Game (Bernard Samson #1) by Len Deighton—A classic novel of Cold War espionage reminiscent of John le Carré
A Prisoner in Malta (Christopher Marlowe #1) by Phillip DePoy—A delightful historical mystery novel starring Christopher Marlowe
Jack of Spies (Jack McColl #1) by David Downing – The “Jack of Spies” was no James Bond
Lenin’s Roller Coaster (Jack McColl #3) by David Downing – A novelist revisits the Russian Revolution
Fellowship of Fear (Gideon Oliver #1) by Aaron Elkins – Soviet spies on the loose, with an anthropologist to the rescue?
Murder in the Queen’s Wardrobe (Mistress Jaffrey #1) by Kathy Lynn Emerson—Intrigue and murder in Elizabeth’s court
The Gods of Gotham (Timothy Wilde #1) by Lyndsay Faye – The first cops in old New York star in a thrilling historical novel
The Laws of Murder (Charles Lenox #8) by Charles Finch – An engaging detective series set in Victorian London
A Death of No Importance (Jane Prescott #1) by Mariah Fredericks—A mine disaster, and a murder, in this Gilded Age mystery
Prince of Spies (Richard Prince #1) by Alex Gerlis—British spies and the Nazi V-2 rocket
The Ways of the World (James Maxted #1) by Robert Goddard – A superb novel of espionage set in 1919 Paris
The Bellini Card (Inspector Yashim #3) by Jason Goodwin – A very odd couple solves murders in this historical novel
Conspirata (Ancient Rome Trilogy #2) by Robert Harris – Ancient Rome, before the fall
Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris—They killed the king. Will they pay the price?
Jade Dragon Mountain (Li Du #1) by Elsa Hart—An intriguing murder mystery set in 18th century China
Historical mysteries and thrillers by Jack Higgins (Harry Patterson):
- Eye of the Storm (Sean Dillon #1) – Reimagining Saddam Hussein’s role in history
- Thunder Point (Sean Dillon #2) – One of Jack Higgins’ best thrillers
- The Eagle Has Landed (Liam Devlin #1) – A classic espionage thriller that’s well worth rereading
- Touch the Devil (Liam Devlin #2) – The IRA, the KGB, MI5, and the Corsican mob all conflict
- Luciano’s Luck – Fact and fiction about the Mafia and the WWII Allied invasion of Sicily
- The Valhalla Exchange – Jack Higgins imagines Martin Bormann on the run
Clark and Division (Japantown Mystery #1) by Naomi Hirahara—Murder strikes a WWII Japanese American family
A Burnable Book (John Gower #1 of 2) by Bruce Holsinger—A plot to assassinate the king in medieval England
Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan—A compelling murder mystery set in India after Partition
The Silver Bone (Kyiv Mystery #1) by Andrey Kurkov—The first in a new series of Ukraine mysteries
Death in Shanghai (Inspector Danilov #1) by M. J. Lee — In a grim historical thriller, a serial killer strikes in 1920s Shanghai
Live by Night (Coughlin #2) by Dennis Lehane – A thoughtful, action-packed crime story
A Conspiracy of Paper (Benjamin Weaver #1) by David Liss—Financial skullduggery in 18th century England in this historical thriller
A Spectacle of Corruption (Benjamin Weaver #2) by David Liss—Rampant political corruption in 18th century England
Black Water Rising (Jay Porter #1) by Attica Locke—Corporate crime and political corruption dominate this promising debut
The Salzburg Connection by Helen MacInnes — Nazis, Communists, and Western spies clash in this classic spy novel
The German Client (Bacci Pagano #6) by Bruno Morchio—An outstanding novel about the Italian Resistance in World War II
Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins #1) by Walter Mosley—The suspenseful first Easy Rawlins detective novel
The Bangalore Detectives Club (Kaveri and Ramu #1) by Harini Nagendra—A murder case crosses class and caste lines in 1921 Bangalore
Heresy (Giordano Bruno #1) by S. J. Parris—An historical spy thriller in the Elizabethan Age
An Echo of Murder (William Monk #23) by Anne Perry – Ritual murder and Hungarian émigrés in 1870 London
A Tale of Two Murders (A Dickens of a Crime #1) by Heather Redmond – Charles Dickens falls in love in “A Tale of Two Murders”
Secrets Typed in Blood (Pentecost and Parker #3) by Stephen Spotswood—Pentecost and Parker are on the case
Trouble in Nuala (Inspector de Silva #1) by Harriet Steele—A colonial-era mystery set in British Ceylon
A Test of Wills (Inspector Ian Rutledge #1) by Charles Todd – Before PTSD, there was “shell shock”
Search the Dark (Inspector Ian Rutledge #3) by Charles Todd – A British detective novel that doesn’t measure up
The Chinese Maze Murders (Judge Dee #1) by Robert van Gulik – A fascinating Chinese detective novel
Waking the Tiger (Inspector Betancourt #1) by Mark Wightman—A gripping detective tale set in colonial Singapore
Among the Mad (Maisie Dobbs #6) by Jacqueline Winspear—Shell shock, madness, and the Great Depression
Other, standalone historical mysteries and thrillers:
The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad—A murder and a cover-up in 1960s Pakistan
The Ambassador by Yehuda Avner and Matt Rees—An alternate history of Israel and World War II
November Road by Lou Berney – A desperate woman, a passel of gangsters and JFK’s assassination
Wolf on a String by Benjamin Black – A murder mystery set in the Holy Roman Empire
The Secret Guests by Benjamin Black—Booker Award winner Benjamin Black returns to historical fiction
The Pictures (Jonathan Crane #1) by Guy Bolton—A riveting tale of corruption in Hollywood’s Golden Age
The Syndicate (Jonathan Crane #2) by Guy Bolton—Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the Mob
The Mandela Plot by Kenneth Bonert – A novel about the anti-apartheid struggle
A Single Spy by William Christie – A Soviet spy in Nazi Germany
The Lazarus Solution by Kjell Ola Dahl—A gripping tale of intrigue in wartime Stockholm
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt—Hired killers, the California Gold Rush, and lots of surprises
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue – Unforgettable characters in 19th century San Francisco
Exposure by Helen Dunmore – Gay life in 1960s Britain in a suspenseful thriller
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy—A classic crime novel about LA’s unsolved Black Dahlia murder
The Malice of Fortune by Michael Ennis – Niccolo Machiavelli, private eye
A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein—This historical spy story ignores history
The Letter Writer by Dan Fesperman—Nazi saboteurs, the Mafia, and crooked cops
High Crimes by Joseph Finder – A taut thriller about Special Forces running amok in El Salvador in 1983
The List by Martin Fletcher – A suspenseful tale of Holocaust survivors in post-war London
Hot Time by W. H. Flint—Teddy Roosevelt at the NYPD during the 1896 election
The Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett—The 40th anniversary edition of Ken Follett’s classic WWII spy novel
The Man from St. Petersburg by Ken Follett—A terrorist threatens a WWI British alliance
Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard – A tale rooted in the brutal Belgian Congo
The Reckoning by John Grisham – John Grisham digs deeply into history with this excellent WWII novel
The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham—John Grisham is at the top of his form in his new legal thriller
Camino Ghosts (Camino Island #3) by John Grisham—John Grisham returns to Camino Island
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah – A deeply affecting novel of the French Resistance
Munich by Robert Harris – Why Neville Chamberlain went to Munich
V2 by Robert Harris—A WWII thriller about Nazi “vengeance weapons”
Shake Off by Mischa Hiller – Behind the First Intifada
The Increment by David Ignatius – A gripping novel about Iran and the CIA
Agents of Innocence by David Ignatius—The CIA and the PLO in Cold War Beirut
A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin – Betrayal is in the eye of the beholder
Blindspot by Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore—A delightful satirical novel of Colonial America
The Accomplice by Joseph Kanon—Hunting Nazis in Argentina
Stardust by Joseph Kanon—Intrigue among German emigrés in postwar Hollywood
Fever: A Novel of Typhoid Mary by Mary Beth Keane – Love, disease, and self-deception: the life of Typhoid Mary
Beyond the Shadow of Night by Ray Kingfisher—Best friends become enemies in World War II
Who Is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht – A puzzling spy story set in Argentina in the time of the generals
High Dive by Jonathan Lee – Irish terrorists attempted to kill Margaret Thatcher (for real)
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane – When the cracks opened wide in Boston society
The Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman—Laura Lippman’s shifting point of view in her latest novel
A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss – Financial skullduggery in 18th century England in this historical thriller
The Cutting Season by Attica Locke—Attica Locke’s brilliant second mystery novel
Watergate by Thomas Mallon – Watergate through a novelist’s eyes
Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March—A brilliant debut novel based on an unsolved murder
Bodyguard of Deception by Samuel Marquis – Propulsive action in a tale of World War II espionage
The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason—When Charles Darwin threatened the stability of English society
Jack 1939 by Francine Mathews – Young John F. Kennedy stars in a spy thriller
Too Bad to Die by Francine Mathews – Ian Fleming stars in this delightful spy story worthy of James Bond
Tightrope by Simon Mawer – A well-written novel about World War II British espionage
Prague Spring by Simon Mawer—A tale of love and espionage during Prague Spring
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride—Is this the Great American novel?
Excavations by Hannah Michell—High-level corruption explains this building collapse
The Long Drop by Denise Mina – A courtroom drama set in Glasgow in the 50s
The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee – The human toll of social change
City of Secrets by Stewart O’Nan – Inside the fight for Israeli independence
The Strivers’ Row Spy (Renaissance #1) by Jason Overstreet—African-American history comes to life in this engaging spy novel
Shoulder the Sky by Anne Perry—World War I, up close and personal
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott—Doctor Zhivago and the women in the CIA typing pool
A Disappearance in Fiji by Nilima Rao—An engaging historical mystery set in the South Pacific
Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo—The brutal legacy of terrorism in the Andes
The Book of Aron by Jim Shepherd – A brilliant novel of the Warsaw Ghetto
Provisionally Yours by Antanas Sileika—A fascinating spy story set in Lithuania following World War I
The Constable’s Tale: A Novel of Colonial America by Donald Smith – A clever detective novel set in Colonial America
The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith – Film stars, partisans, and Nazi generals in 1945 Italy
December 6 by Martin Cruz Smith—A standalone novel from the author of the Arkady Renko stories
The Farm by Tom Rob Smith – A thriller that simply wasn’t very exciting
Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford—What if Native Americans had built a nation?
The Singapore Wink by Ross Thomas – An engaging novel of crime and espionage set in 1960s Singapore
Harsh Times by Mario Vargas Llosa—When the CIA overthrew the Guatemalan government
An Honorable Man by Paul Vidich – The Cold War, the early CIA, and the McCarthy Era
The Good Assassin by Paul Vidich – A compelling spy novel set during the Cuban Revolution
The Coldest Warrior by Paul Vidich – Project MK-Ultra and the scientist who fell to his death
Beirut Station: Two Lives of a Spy by Paul Vidich—A compelling spy novel about living a double life
The Wages of Sin by Kaite Walsh – A Victorian-era murder mystery set in Edinburgh
Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams—American defectors in Moscow mirror the Cambridge Five
The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear—A terrific standalone historical thriller
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- 30 outstanding detective series from around the world
- Good books about the Middle Ages
And you can always find my most popular reviews, and the most recent ones, on the Home Page.
