11 Must-Read Historical Crime Novels

Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard becomes fascinated with Richard III, a venomous hunchback who may have killed his brother’s children to secure his crown during Tudor England. The inspector, with the help of the British Museum and an American scholar, is determined to find out what kind of man Richard III really was and who killed the Little Princes in the Tower.

Is it possible to remember events falsely? In the 1660s, when an Oxford don is murdered, each witness points to a different culprit... So who is the real killer?

In 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister and her sister's childhood friend. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives–together with her precocious literary gifts–brings about a crime that will change all their lives, lasting through the chaos and carnage of World War II.

Conan Doyle’s incomparable tales bring to life a Victorian England of horse-drawn cabs, fogs, and the famous lodgings at 221B Baker Street, where for more than forty years Sherlock Holmes earned his undisputed reputation as the greatest fictional detective of all time.

In the first installment of an iconic historical mystery series, a medieval monk seeks a saint’s remains for Shrewsbury Abbey—but finds a murderous sinner instead.

Amelia Peabody, a product of the Victorian age, embarks on her debut Egyptian adventure armed with unshakable self-confidence, a journal to record her thoughts, and, of course, a sturdy umbrella. Strange visitations, suspicious accidents, and a botched kidnapping convince Amelia that there is a plot afoot and she finds herself up against an unknown enemy—and perilous forces that threaten to make her first Egyptian trip also her last . . .

In 1896 New York, a newspaper reporter and a psychologist, or “alienist,” embark on a revolutionary effort in criminology: creating a psychological profile of the perpetrator based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who will kill again before their hunt is over.

Inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s classic Jane Eyre, Jane Steele is an orphan who returns to her childhood home as the new governess. As she falls in love with the gruffly tragic owner of the house, she faces a terrible dilemma: Can she possess him—body, soul, and secrets—without revealing her own murderous past?

This captivating retelling of a classic fairy tale imaginatively explores parental obsession, spousal love, and the secrets that make strangers out of the people we love the most. It’s a thrilling and emotionally devastating journey through the gruesome legacies that threaten to devour us and the homely, messy magic that saves us, if we’re lucky.

A reconstruction of the true life story of our greatest president for the first time—all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War, and uncovering the massive role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.