Historical Mystery Lovers discussion

so... I haven't read a 5 ⭐️ book this year yet and i'm so sad about this. can you guys recommend me your 5 star reads?

Can't go wrong with by Tom Mead. Cabaret Macabre. Epitome of Golden Age, locked room mysteries.
Or Matthew Booth, whose latest is A Killing Amongst the Dead. An author who likes to really surprise his readers.

I loved The Briar Club. I wouldn't really call it a historical mystery. I starts with a dead body, and it's a mystery to the reader who died and who did it until the end. But it's not a mystery to the characters, and the book doesn't deal with an investigation or anything. It just follows them through their lives in the time leading up to it. It has great characters, though. And it brings to life the time period through all their different perspectives.

I'm also a huge fan of this series: A Rip Through Time, The Poisoner's Ring, Disturbing the Dead. They are all 5 stars to me and I can't wait for the next one. But they are also not straight-up historical mystery. That is the main focus I would say. But there's also a time travel aspect - the main character is a cop from modern day and ends up stuck in Victorian Edinburgh.

That's it for historical mystery-ish 5-stars for me this year so far...

I love the Lady Emily series by Tasha Alexander because each book offers both an intricate mystery to solve and lots of historical details and knowledge, sometimes even real historical characters.
Some books are set in Victorian-era London and others around the world.
--> https://www.goodreads.com/series/4342...



I also love the medieval mysteries of Jeri Westerson's Crispin Guest series. They are fast-paced mysteries well mixed with historical notions and real-life characters from the 14th century

---> https://www.goodreads.com/series/4587...

Chrissy wrote: "I loved The Briar Club. I wouldn't really call it a historical mystery. I starts with a dead body, and it's a mystery to the reader who died and..."

Thanks for your suggestion, I added " A Rip in Time" to my WTR shelf ! :-)

I recommend the Rowland Sinclair series by Sulari Gentill. #1 A Few Right Thinking Men. Set in 1930's Australia, Europe.
Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amelia Peabody mysteries always make me laugh and cheer me up. I haven't read any 5 star reads lately either.

I hesitate to give 5 stars to any of the hist.myst. books I read (most vacillate around 3 stars, which is okay for me when it comes to purely escapist reading), because I reserve them for really outstanding works of literature, mostly classics.

But if there's one hist.myst. series that comes close to the 5 stars in my scheme of rating, it is the Sir Robert Carey 10 volume series, set in the Elizabethan era, and beginning with A Famine of Horses.

I also love the Robert Carey series but, in my opinion, a really 5-star series is Shardlake, starting with Dissolution. Sadly the author died recently.

Sandy wrote: "I also love the Robert Carey series but, in my opinion, a really 5-star series is Shardlake, starting with Dissolution. Sadly the author died recently."

this one is on my TBR list - thank you for the reminder and the recommendation!

I compiled a list of my five star historical mysteries that I've read since I've been rating books on Goodreads:

Justice Hall and Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King
Shinju, Bundori, The Samurai's Wife, The Concubine's Tattoo and The Ronin's Mistress by Laura Joh Rowland

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon

Last Stop Klindenspiel by Marta Tandori

Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal

Our Lady Of Darkness by Peter Tremayne

An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters

The White Mirror by Elsa Hart

The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein