Captivating Historical Mystery Books

The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Harlem Shuffle continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.

A tightly plotted page-turner ripped from the headlines of history, as three very different women must work together to stop a killer and save the truest home they’ve ever known.

From the author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: A dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film — and awakens one woman’s hidden powers.

From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, whose home also hosts a transient family of petty thieves. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives — Gentleman — with an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and cares for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways … But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.

One unidentified skeleton. Three missing men. A village full of secrets. The bestselling author of The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna brings us a sparkling — by turns funny and moving — novel about a young American woman turned amateur detective in a small village in Southern Italy.

From the acclaimed author of The Weight of Water and The Pilot’s Wife: An exquisitely suspenseful novel about an extraordinary young woman tested by a catastrophic event — based on the true story of the largest fire in Maine’s history.

Amateur sleuth Flavia de Luce, along with her pestilent younger cousin, investigates the murder of a former public hangman and uncovers a secret that brings the greatest shock of her life.

A gripping page-turner from the celebrated author of book club favorite The Violin Conspiracy: Music professor Bern Hendricks discovers a shocking secret about the most famous American composer of all time — his music may have been stolen from a Black Jazz Age prodigy named Josephine Reed. Determined to uncover the truth that a powerful organization wants to keep hidden, Bern will stop at nothing to right history’s wrongs and give Josephine the recognition she deserves.

A body falls from a townhouse window in Harlem, and it looks just like the newest singer at the Apollo … in this evocative, twisting new novel from the author of Miss Aldridge Regrets.

As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton’s atmospheric new novel.

Sarah Dunant’s In the Company of the Courtesan is an epic novel of life in Renaissance Italy. Escaping the sack of Rome in 1527, with their stomachs churning on the jewels they have swallowed, the courtesan Fiammetta and her companion, Bucino, head for Venice, the shimmering city born out of the water to infiltrate Venetian society. A story of desire and deception, sin and religion, loyalty and friendship, In the Company of the Courtesan paints a portrait of one of the world’s greatest cities at its most potent moment in history: It is a picture that remains vivid long after the final page.

With the Cold War over, a new era of espionage has begun. In the power vacuum left by the Soviet Union, arms dealers and drug smugglers have risen to immense influence and wealth. The sinister master of them all is Richard Onslow Roper, the charming, ruthless Englishman whose operation seems untouchable. Slipping into this maze of peril is Jonathan Pine, a former British soldier who’s currently the night manager of a posh hotel in Zurich. Having learned to hate and fear Roper more than any man on earth, Pine is willing to do whatever it takes to help the agents at Whitehall bring him down — and personal vengeance is only part of the reason why.

1944: As World War II rages on, a mysterious, deadly fervor spreads across America, transforming people into monstrous aggressors, each provoked into fits of unthinkable barbarity. It’s a contagion that, according to Meiko Briggs, might have dark, otherworldly underpinnings … With a keen and prescient eye, acclaimed author Alma Katsu crafts a terrifying story about the danger of demonization, a mysterious contagion, and a deep excavation of how we decide who gets to be human when being human matters most.

A haunting, epic novel about betrayal, revenge, and redemption that follows three generations of Russian women, from the 1917 revolution to the last days of the Soviet Union, and the enduring love story at the center.

Louise Lloyd is finally living the quiet life she’d longed for, working in a parfumerie by day and spending time with her new friends every night at the Aquarius club in Paris. When a desperate mother asks for help locating her artist daughter, Louise realizes she has no choice but to do what she can to find the missing young woman. Her search draws her into a world of privilege and ice-cold ambition. With the help of some friends from home, Louise must untangle a web of lies, jealousy, and betrayal to find out what really happened while fighting to keep her new life from crashing down around her.

Charlotte Holmes is accustomed to solving crimes, not being accused of them, but she finds herself in a dreadfully precarious position as the bestselling Lady Sherlock series continues.

Vampires, vaqueros, and star-crossed lovers face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda.

Return to 1930s Burning Cove, California, the glamorous seaside playground for Hollywood stars, mobsters, spies, and a host of others who find more than they bargain for in this mysterious town.

A luxurious African safari turns deadly for a Hollywood starlet and her entourage in a riveting historical thriller the New York Times calls “wildly entertaining.” From the bestselling author of The Flight Attendant.

The third book in the Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mystery series, which finds the amateur sleuths facing their most daunting challenge yet: Preventing the murder of the imperious Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Barcelona, 1945: Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: Someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets — an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the smalltown of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing … From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that “hits like a sledgehammer … an absolutely must-real novel” (Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl).

In their six years of marriage, Elizabeth and Darcy have forged a peaceful, happy life for their family at Pemberley, Darcy’s impressive estate. And preparations for their annual autumn ball are proceeding apace. But on the eve of the ball, chaos descends. Lydia Wickham, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, arrives in a hysterical state — shrieking that Wickham has been murdered. Plunged into frightening mystery and a lurid murder trial, the lives of Pemberley’s owners and servants alike may never be the same.