There are so many historical mystery books it is a never ending list filled with lots of time periods, places around the world, historical events, historical figures, and interesting “detectives” determined to put the puzzle pieces together — or stop a crime. Some merely use the time period as a background and others bring to light historical moments that have never been spotlighted in history classes. There is truly so much to explore and enjoy, it’s a genre of riches. I’ve gone with my favorites (well, 17 favorites) and separated them into best historical mystery series and standalone historical mystery books — including historical detective fiction, Victorian mystery novels, and crime books. So dive in and marathon a series or take a short hop into a time period with these excellent historical mysteries. (I’ve included trigger warnings where I made note of them, but where they aren’t listed, I didn’t have a record of them. It’s worth looking up trigger warnings on those titles if there’s anything in particular you want to avoid.)
Standalone Historical Mystery Books
Series Starting Historical Mystery Books
Whether you love series or standalone historical mystery books — or both! — enjoy an escape from today with a mystery set in the past with one of these great historical mystery books. (Trigger warning: implied partner abuse/homophobia) (TW: brief mention of past child abuse, detail/ brief mention of past partner abuse, familial abuse on page/ addiction/ brief mention past suicide; attempted suicide, detail/ attempted rape, on page; alludes to past rape) (TW: PTSD/ addiction/ suicides mentioned, with detail) (TW: predator, sexual assault incidents, not graphic / main case questioned as suicide/ misgendering ) (TW: abuse/ rape/ suicide — this trigger warning list may be incomplete) (TW: past suicides mentioned, detail/ mentions public groping/ torture/ past child murder mentioned) (TW: case believed suicide at first/ mentions domestic abuse, no detail/ child marriages, slavery/ child death) (TW: alcoholism/ past suicidal thoughts briefly mentioned, detail/ past child abuse) (TW: suicide) (TW: suicide/ homophobia / child abuse) (TW: attempted rape/ kidnapping/ homophobia) (TW: domestic abuse/ girl death — this trigger warning list may be incomplete)
