Historical Thrillers and Mysteries
You'll be on the edge of your seat reading these mysteries and thrillers set in the past! These are some of the best and most interesting recent releases, perfect for fans of Charles Todd or Anne Perry who want to branch out.
The abstainer : a novel
McGuire, Ian, author
2020
Stephen Doyle, an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War, has joined the Fenians, a secret society intent on ending British rule in Ireland by any means necessary. Head Constable James O'Connor has fled grief and drink for a sober start in Manchester - proving to be particularly advantageous in spying on Fenian activity. When a long-lost nephew arrives on O'Connor's doorstep looking for work, O'Connor cannot foresee the way his fragile new life will be imperiled - and how his and Doyle's fates will be intertwined.
American spy
Wilkinson, Lauren, 1984- author.
2018
1986, the heart of the Cold War. A young black woman working in an old boys' club, Marie Mitchell's FBI career has stalled out and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. Given the opportunity to join a task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes. In the year that follows Marie observes Sankara, seduces him-- and has a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister, and a good American.
The best bad things
Carrasco, Katrina Marie, 1983- author
2018
It is 1887, and Alma is on the hunt for stolen opium. Trained in espionage by Pinkerton Detective Agency, Alma now works for Delphine Beaumond, the seductive mastermind of a smuggling ring. Alma's enjoying her dangerous game of shifting identities and double crosses as she fights for a promotion and an invitation back into Delphine's bed. But it's getting harder to keep her stories straight and to know whom to trust. One wrong move and she could be unmasked: as a woman, as a traitor, or as a spy.
Blame the dead
Ruggero, Ed, author.
2020
Sicily, 1943. Eddie Harkins, former Philadelphia beat cop turned Military Police lieutenant, reluctantly finds himself first at the scene of a murder at the US Army's 11th Field Hospital. There the nurses contend with heat, dirt, short-handed staffs, the threat of German counterattack, an ever-present flood of horribly wounded GIs, and the threat of assault by one of their own-at least until someone shoots Dr. Myers Stephenson in the head. As the battle lines push forward, Harkins is running out of time to find one killer before he can strike again.
Dark queen rising
Doherty, P. C., author.
2018
"First in a brand-new historical mystery series featuring Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII and matriarch of the Tudor dynasty... May, 1471. The Wars of the Roses are reaching their bitter and bloody climax. Edward of York has claimed the English throne, and his supporters are extracting a savage revenge on all who supported the Lancastrian cause. Surrounded by enemies wherever she turns, the position of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and mother to Henry Tudor, the last remaining hope of the House of Lancaster, is precarious to say the least. Determined to protect her son whatever it takes, Margaret must rely on her sharp-witted clerk Christopher Ulswicke to be her eyes and ears. When four bodies are discovered in a London tavern, their throats slit, and Margaret herself is suspected of being behind the crime, it's up to Ulswicke to prove his mistress's innocence and unmask the real killer."--Publisher's description.
The devil aspect : the strange truth behind the occurrences at Hrad Orlů Asylum for the Criminally Insane : a novel
Russell, Craig, 1956- author.
2019
"A novel set in Czechoslovakia in 1935, in which a brilliant young psychiatrist takes his new post at an asylum for the criminally insane that houses only six inmates--the country's most depraved murderers--while, in Prague, a detective struggles to understand a brutal serial killer who has spread fear through the city, and who may have ties to the asylum"-- Provided by publisher.
A hundred suns
Tanabe, Karin, author
2020
1933. American Jessie Lesage steps off a boat from Paris and onto the shores of Vietnam. Accompanying her French husband Victor, an heir to the Michelin rubber fortune, she's certain that their new life is full of promise. Jessie knows that their vast plantations near Saigon are the key to the family's prosperity, and while they have been marred in scandal, she needs them to succeed for her husband's sake-and to ensure that her trail of secrets stays hidden in the past. Jessie dives into the glamorous colonial world, and meets Marcelle de Fabry, a spellbinding French woman with a moneyed Indochinese lover, the silk tycoon Khoi Nguyen. Descending on Jessie's world like a hurricane, Marcelle proves to be an exuberant guide to ex-pat life. As a fiery political struggle builds around her, Jessie begins to wonder what's real in a friendship that she suspects may be nothing but a house of cards.
The opium prince : a novel
Aimaq, Jasmine, author.
2020
"Born to an American mother and a late Afghan war hero-turned-magnate, Daniel Sajadi has spent his life navigating a complex identity. After years in Los Angeles, he is returning home to Kabul for the first time as the head of a US foreign aid agency dedicated to staunching the growth of the poppy fields in Fever Valley that feed the world's opiate epidemic. But on the drive back to Kabul from an anniversary trip with his wife, Rebecca, Daniel hits and kills a young Kochi girl named Telaya. Nomad tribes are ignored in the eyes of the law, and Daniel is let off with a nominal fine due to a mysterious witness at the scene-a man named Taj Maleki, who turns out to be a prominent opium khan. Wracked with guilt and visions of Telaya, Daniel begins to unravel, running from his rapidly crumbling marriage and threats of blackmail and murder from the man who would do anything to save his poppy fields from eradication. In a powerful literary thriller debut that captures the tumultuous, sometimes violent trajectory of revolution, Jasmine Aimaq draws the often invisible lines between criminal empires and shifting political regimes."-- Provided by publisher.
The Rose Code : A Novel.
Quinn, Kate.
2021
1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. 1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, a mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. Author of "The Huntress." Print run 30,000.
The secret guests
Black, Benjamin, 1945- author
2020
Ahead of the German Blitz during World War II, English parents from every social class sent their children to the countryside for safety, displacing more than three million young offspring. In The Secret Guests, the British royal family takes this evacuation a step further, secretly moving the princesses to the estate of the Duke of Edenmore in "neutral" Ireland. A female English secret agent, Miss Celia Nashe, and a young Irish detective, Garda Strafford, are assigned to watch over "Ellen" and "Mary" at Clonmillis Hall. But the Irish stable hand, the housemaid, the formidable housekeeper, the Duke himself, and other Irish townspeople, some of whom lost family to English gunshots during the War of Independence, go freely about their business in and around the great house. Soon suspicions about the guests' true identities percolate, a dangerous boredom sets in for the princesses, and, within and without Clonmillis acreage, passions as well as stakes rise.-- Publisher's description.
The starlet and the spy
Lee, Ji-Min, author
2019
February 1954. Although the Korean War armistice was signed a year ago, most citizens of Seoul still battle to return to some semblance of normalcy. Conditions are dismal. Children beg for food, and orphanages are teeming. Alice J. Kim, a Korean translator and typist for the American forces still sanctioned in the city, yearns for the life she used to live before her country was torn apart. Then Alice's boss makes an announcement--the American movie star Marilyn Monroe will be visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour, and Alice has been chosen as her translator. Though intrigued, Alice has few expectations of the job--what could she and a beautiful actress at the peak of her fame possibly have to talk about? Yet the Marilyn she meets, while just as dazzling and sensual as Alice expected, is also surprisingly approachable. As Marilyn's visit unfolds, Alice is forced into a reckoning with her own painful past. Moving and mesmerizing, The Starlet and the Spy is a beautiful portrayal of unexpected kinship between two very different women, and of the surprising connections that can change, or even save, a life.
A Tip for the Hangman : A Novel.
Epstein, Allison.
2021
England, 1585. Kit Marlowe receives an unexpected visitor: Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, who has come with an unorthodox career opportunity. Her Majesty's spies are in need of new recruits, and Kit's flexible moral compass has drawn their attention. The ripple effects of his service to the Crown are far-reaching and leave Kit a changed man. Everything he's worked so hard to attain - including the trust of the man he loves - could vanish before his very eyes. Print run 30,000.
The war widow : a novel
Moss, Tara, author
2020
Sydney, Australia, 1946. Though war correspondent Billie Walker is happy to finally be home. She reopens her late father's business, a private investigation agency, and slowly, the women of Sydney come knocking. At first, Billie's bread and butter is tailing cheating husbands. Then a young man, the son of European immigrants, goes missing, and Billie finds herself on a dangerous new trail that will lead to the highest levels of Sydney society as well as the city's underworld. Author of the Makedde Vanderwall series.
The widows of Malabar Hill
Massey, Sujata, author
2018
Bombay, 1921: Perveen Mistry, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a law degree from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and protecting women's legal rights. Mistry Law has been appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen is going through the paperwork, she notices something strange: all three of the wives have signed over their full inheritance to a charity. Perveen is suspicious, especially since one of the widows has signed her form with an X--meaning she probably couldn't even read the document. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate, and realizes her instincts about the will were correct when tensions escalate to murder.
The wolf and the watchman
Natt och Dag, Niklas, author
2019
One morning in the autumn of 1793, watchman Mikel Cardell is awakened from his drunken slumber with reports of a body seen floating in the Larder, once a pristine lake on Stockholm's Southern Isle, now a rancid bog. Efforts to identify the bizarrely mutilated corpse are entrusted to incorruptible lawyer Cecil Winge, who enlists Cardell's help to solve the case. But time is short: Winge's health is failing, the monarchy is in shambles, and whispered conspiracies and paranoia abound.