Historical Mystery

The historical mystery or historical whodunit is a subgenre of two literary genres, historical fiction and mystery fiction. These works are set in a time period considered historical from the author's perspective, and the central plot involves the solving of a mystery or crime (usually murder). Though works combining these genres have existed since at least the early 1900s, many credit Ellis Peters's Cadfael Chronicles (1977-1994) for popularizing what would become known as the historical mystery. ...more

The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives
Daughter of Egypt
The Dreadfuls
A Ghastly Catastrophe (Veronica Speedwell, #10)
Ruby Falls
The Star from Calcutta (Perveen Mistry, #5)
A Love Most Daring (Bow Street #3)
Heiress of Nowhere
The Harvey Girl
Who Killed The Earl of Moran? (Casebook of Barnaby Adair #13)
Never Spar with a Viscount (Secret Society of Governess Spies, #3)
The Fourth Princess
The Heir of Whitestone
Enola Holmes and the Clanging Coffin (Enola Holmes #10)
The Killing Time (Ali Dawson, #2)
The Last Secret of Lily Adams
The Murder at World's End (Stockingham & Pike, #1)
When the Wolves Are Silent (Sebastian St. Cyr, #21)
The Sicilian Inheritance
Last Twilight in Paris
A Ghastly Catastrophe (Veronica Speedwell, #10)
Land of Dreams
Homecoming
The Heir of Whitestone
Precipice
The Predicament
Grimm Curiosities
A Novel Disguise (A Lady Librarian Mystery #1)
The Missing Pages
The Star from Calcutta (Perveen Mistry, #5)
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth PetersWhen Secrets Bloom by Patricia  FurstenbergBlameless by Gail CarrigerBreathe by Sara FujimuraThe Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
History, Adventure, Romance
148 books — 147 voters

My Lady Jane by Cynthia HandWitchfall by Victoria LambMary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn MeyerBeware, Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn MeyerElizabeth I by Kathryn Lasky
YA & Middle Grade Tudor Fiction
131 books — 51 voters
The Séance by John HarwoodAffinity by Sarah WatersThings Half in Shadow by Alan FinnThe House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine HoweThe Diviners by Libba Bray
Victorian Spiritualism Fiction
113 books — 77 voters


What Angels Fear (Sebastian St. Cyr, #1)
A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell, #1)
Silent in the Grave (Lady Julia Grey, #1)
Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody, #1)
Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1)
The Anatomist's Wife (Lady Darby Mystery, #1)
And Only to Deceive (Lady Emily, #1)
A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock, #1)
Silent in the Sanctuary (Lady Julia Grey, #2)
Mistress of the Art of Death (Mistress of the Art of Death, #1)
Murder on Astor Place (Gaslight Mystery, #1)
Her Royal Spyness (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries, #1)
The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, #1)
Murder on Black Swan Lane (Wrexford & Sloane, #1)
When Gods Die (Sebastian St. Cyr, #2)

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Why do they all have such unfortunate names? First Parthenope Fleet. Now Undine Trevelyan. Why do we never meet a Mary Smith I should like, just once, to meet a Mary Smith." "What sort of interesting things would ever befall a Mary Smith?" I demanded. "Who would stab or poison or garotte a Mary Smith? It is unthinkable." "Not everyone of our acquaintance needs be murdered, Veronica. In fact, some people find it preferable to make friends with normal folk." "How very depressing." I said, sippi ...more
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Under the sanctuary are the catacombs where the dead wait for resurrection. The living do not venture there. The caverns here underneath the Sanctuary are illuminated only by dim shafts of light from the sanctuary. The walls are etched with flowers of frost, but at least I am out of the wind. Dark bays line the hall in front of me, a vast rabbit warren, each hold filled to the brim with the scent of the past.
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