15 New Historical Mysteries to Get Immersed In

by Marie Benedict

In 1930 London, the Queens of Crime, a secret society of renowned women writers led by Dorothy L. Sayers investigates the murder of nurse May Daniels, found strangled in a park, and must navigate a web of intrigue and danger as they challenge societal norms.

by Ariel Dorfman

Mozart, haunted by the mysterious deaths of Bach and Handel, embarks on a perilous journey through 18th-century Europe, unraveling a sinister plot that potentially resulted in murder while navigating his own meteoric rise to musical fame. 

by Lauren Willig

Bitter rivals Hamilton and Burr unite to defend a carpenter accused of murdering Elma Sands, a mysterious young woman found in a well, intertwining a high-profile trial with their own political ambitions and personal enmity.

by Jacquie Pham

In 1928 Saigon, former childhood friends Duy, Phong, Minh, and Edmond, now influential businessmen, gather at a Dalat mansion for an evening that ends in murder; shifting perspectives reveal a web of terror, loyalty, and secrets, highlighting the impact of colonialism and economic disparity.

by Rob Osler

In 1898 Chicago, Harriet Morrow, a determined young woman hired as the first female detective at the prestigious Prescott Agency, must solve the odd disappearance of a maid from a lavish mansion, all while navigating skeptical colleagues and uncovering dangerous secrets hidden within the city’s Polish community.

by Lila Cain

Having escaped a Jamaican sugar plantation and won his freedom and an inheritance, Daniel and his sister Pearl arrive in London in 1782. Callously tricked, they find themselves in the rookeries of St Giles—a warren of dark and menacing alleyways, filled with violence and poverty and run by the cruel Elias. But under his dangerous rule is a brotherhood of Black men, the Blackbirds of St Giles, whose intention is to set their people free. Can Daniel use his strength, wit and the fellowship of the other Blackbirds to overthrow Elias and truly find the freedom he fought for…? 

by Jess Kidd

1954: When her former novice's dependable letters stop, Nora Breen asks to be released from her vows. Haunted by a line in Frieda's letter, Nora arrives at Gulls Nest, a charming hotel in Gore-on-Sea in Kent. A seaside town, a place of fresh air and relaxed constraints, is the perfect place for a new start. Nora hides her identity and pries into the lives of her fellow guests. But when a series of bizarre murders rattles the occupants of Gulls Nest it's time to ask if a dark past can ever really be left behind.

by Olesya Lyuzna

The search for a kidnapped singer in Prohibition-era New York leads an intrepid reporter from Harlem speakeasies to the dazzling world of the theater, all while grappling with her warring passions.

by Alex Hay

A master con woman in 1898 London, Quinn le Blanc has just five days to impersonate a wealthy heiress and ensnare a duke into marriage, but as she infiltrates the high society of the Kendal family, she discovers that deception and hidden motives run on all sides.

by Brianna Labuskes

During the Great Depression, WPA editor Millie Lang is sent to Montana to investigate sabotage at her project and uncovers a mystery surrounding Alice Monroe, her Boxcar Library, and the disappearance of librarian Colette Durand years earlier. Inspired by true events.

by Laurent Binet; translated from the French by Sam Taylor

As dawn breaks over the city of Florence on New Year’s Day 1557, Jacopo da Pontormo is discovered lying on the floor of a church, stabbed through the heart. Above him are the frescoes he labored over for more than a decade. When guards search his quarters, they find an obscene painting of Venus and Cupid—with the face of Venus replaced by that of Maria de’ Medici, the Duke of Florence’s oldest daughter. The city erupts in chaos. Who could have committed these crimes? The truth, when it comes to light, is as shocking as the bold new artworks that have made Florence the red-hot center of European art and intrigue.

by Pam Jenoff

In London, 1953, a secondhand shop necklace bears the name Lévitan, a Paris department store-turned-Nazi prison camp, leading Louise and former romantic partner Ian to investigate her friend Franny’s war death and the fate of Helaine, a woman imprisoned at Lévitan when the Germans invaded France.

by Elizabeth Hobbs

Miss Marigold Manners is invited to a mysterious relative’s estate on the fog-shrouded coast of New England and winds up entangled in a murder investigation. She must enlist the help of an eccentric, colorful cast of friends and found family to save herself—and everything she holds dear. 

by Claire Anderson-Wheeler

Greta Gatsby, newly arrived at her brother Jay’s West Egg mansion, finds her idyllic summer shattered by scandal, betrayal, and murder, forcing her to navigate the secrets of a glittering yet dangerous world of wealth and deception.

by Freya Berry

Scottish adventurer Emily Blackwood, living in Australia in 1932, is commissioned to find a hidden treasure in a remote Scottish castle, but instead uncovers a mysterious diary that leads her on a perilous quest involving a long-lost book and her own darkest secret.