I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: historical crime fiction is the best. I think it’s mostly because of the limits on technology that come with the past, not to mention the styles and architecture are just better, but when we’re talking midcentury… well, that’s the time when espionage and surveillance equipment was really popping off thanks to the development of Hoover’s FBI. Not all of the books listed below are about intelligence, but they’re all set in midcentury, and there’s a lot to love in that era. So without any more ado, here are five thrillers set midcentury for you to enjoy!
On a seemingly random, unseasonably warm Sunday in November in the Delaware of the late 1950s, housewife Kathleen refuses to join her husband and young sons at church. Virgil takes them on his own, and Kathleen—who was once a promising tennis champion in college—puts on her old red swimsuit and goes down to their apartment complex’s swimming pool. She gets in, and she refuses to get out. Eight hours pass over the novel’s 144 pages, during which we learn how both spouses feel trapped in their marriage, and how they came to be in this situation at all. It’s a contemplative look at gender roles and societal expectations of the midcentury.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around July 30, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
The 1980s might be a stretch when it comes to being “midcentury,” but thriller lovers are so enthralled by the nostalgia of this decade lately that we’re including it anyway! On the day of Ethan and Billy’s backyard campout sleepover on Hemlock Circle, they and three other friends visit a mysterious institute where occultists try to connect with spirits. That night, as they sleep, someone slashes open their tent and takes Billy. The missing person case goes cold for thirty years while survivors’ guilt wracks Ethan and prevents him from moving on in a normal, healthy way. When Ethan’s parents retire, move to Florida, and ask him to take care of their place in New Jersey. He got out as soon as he was able, but very shortly after he’s obligated to return, authorities find Billy’s remains. And Ethan learns that the other three kids who went to that institute have also randomly returned to town… but that might not be as random as it seems.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around June 18, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
This historical fiction thriller novel happens in the spring of 1973, during the Cold War, just after the United States frustrated the Soviets by landing a man on the moon. NASA bills their follow-up mission as a scientific one, but flight controller Kazimieras Zemeckis knows that intelligence has discovered a Soviet space station whose sole aim is to spy on America. This mission, known as Apollo 18, incurs a deadly incident during rehearsals, which results in a change of the crew, more oddities, and ominous developments between the Soviets and the U.S., even as an investigation happens on land while the astronauts are in space. This series (the first installment!) is written by a former Canadian military test pilot and astronaut, so you can expect some pretty accurate, detailed descriptions of the technology of the time, too—which is part of the allure of an historical setting.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around August 2, 2022. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Irene and her husband have suffered five miscarriages by the time they find the house-cum-hospital in the Berkshires. It’s 1948, and although this book is a novel, the husband-and-wife team of doctors are pioneering an experimental treatment that according to some reviews is specific to the 1940s. Granted, while the pregnancies and miscarriages are all too real, when Irene discovers a forgotten, walled garden on the grounds, the supernatural element that drives this drama into horror and thriller starts to grow.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around April 9, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
If you’re already familiar with the amateur teenage sleuths Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson (from the first installment of the Nightingale Trilogy, The Savage Kind), then you won’t be surprised to hear they attend a lecture by a favorite author of theirs, Roger Raymond in April of 1954. Roger has just been fired from his position at the State Department as a part of an anti-gay purge during the Red Scare on the grounds that homosexual people are security risks. Judy and Philippa don’t know it, but their years-long manhunt for spy and serial killer Adrian Bogdan fueled Roger’s dismissal. When Roger’s apartment goes up in flame with him inside just a month later, his lover and writing partner Lionel refuses to accept the official assessment of suicide by gas ignition. Lionel tries to get to the bottom of Roger’s death… but so do Judy and Philippa, and they don’t hall have the same goals.
Format
Trade Cloth; Trade Cloth
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around June 4, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
