Here are 45 books that Elena Standish fans have personally recommended once you finish the Elena Standish series.
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Ever since I read the work of Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, and Georgette Heyer at an impressionable age, nineteenth-century England has fascinated me. My mother, a lifelong reader, is responsible for sparking this obsession. She never cared that I wanted to read “grown-up books” or later tried to discourage me from majoring in English. After college, I went on to teach British literature to high school students and to write two mystery series, one set during the Regency period, the other taking place half a century later. This new Victorian series introduces a bored spinster who finds her purpose in life as a detective.
This kick-off to Perry’s iconic Victorian detective series shines with its twisty mystery and depiction of the heroine’s liberation from the social constraints of her day. I recall reading this book years ago and being shocked by the revelation of the killer.
Of course, this is because Anne Perry has laid the groundwork so well in a trail of clues that lead inexorably to a tragic showdown. The husband-and-wife team of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt go on to star in a few dozen novels, all of them very much worth reading.
In the debut of the New York Times–bestselling Victorian crime series, Inspector Thomas Pitt seeks an elusive strangler among upper-class British society.
Panic and fear strike the Ellison household when one of their own falls prey to the Cater Street murderer. While Mrs. Ellison and her three daughters are out, their maid becomes the third victim of a killer who strangles young women with cheese wire, leaving their swollen-faced bodies on the dark streets of this genteel neighborhood. Inspector Pitt, assigned to the case, must break through the walls of upper-class society to get at the truth. His in-depth investigation…
I have been a lover of histories and mysteries for as long as I can remember. Equal parts museum junkie and Dateline addict, I cannot get enough of history and whodunnits. From Poirot and Conan Doyle to Bernard Cornwall and Ken Follett, I love them all. As a kid, reading with a flashlight under the covers was a favorite pastime, and I wore out my library card. As an adult, I head to the true crime section of the bookstore first. I love that there are books that blend my two passions so well, and I hope you enjoy this list of historical mysteries as much as I do.
I found the premise of this book intriguing. A detective with amnesia discovering his identity through his interactions with those who knew him before his accident? Yes, please! It's so unique!
This first book in the Inspector Monk series sets the stage for the many great books that follow with a brilliant murder mystery, interesting characters, and an immersive setting. I loved the intersection of Victorian London and the Crimean War and the many ways in which Perry brought the history to life with characters Dickens would be proud of, puzzles that would please Agatha Christie, and world-building that would satisfy Brandon Sanderson.
He is not going to die, after all, in this Victorian pesthouse called a hospital. But the accident that felled him on a London street has left him with only half a life, because his memory and his entire past have vanished. His name, they tell him, is William Monk, and he is a London police detective; the mirror reflects a face that women woud like, but he senses he has been more feared than loved. Monk is given a particularly sensational case: the brutal murder of Major the Honourable Joscelin Grey, Crimean war hero and a popular man about…
I get a fuzzy, euphoric feeling when I see a room full of books I can smell and touch. Thrillers, mysteries, epic fantasies, classics, romance… Ah, to find narratives with strong characters, amazing worlds, and thick plots that I can get lost in! A little spice is always nice, but please don’t violate me with explicit obscenities. My soul is not meant for these modern times. I’m especially impressed when writers have the ability to paint sensual scenes in a subtle, crafty way that leaves the details to a reader’s imagination. My happy place is reading in a treehouse library that overlooks my forest. One day I’ll go there.
I immediately found myself lost in this enemies-to-lovers adventure. The bewitching storyline and mystery kept me engaged from the start. I couldn’t put the book down. The writer, Kristen Ciccarrelli, was new to me when I began this series, and she made a beautiful impression by capturing my interest from page one.
Crimson Moth was the first in the Heartless Hunter series, and I look forward to reading the next one!
Enemies-to-lovers doesn't get more high stakes than a witch and a witch hunter falling in love in bestselling author Kristen Ciccarelli's latest romantic fantasy.
On the night Rune's life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.
Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a…
I get a fuzzy, euphoric feeling when I see a room full of books I can smell and touch. Thrillers, mysteries, epic fantasies, classics, romance… Ah, to find narratives with strong characters, amazing worlds, and thick plots that I can get lost in! A little spice is always nice, but please don’t violate me with explicit obscenities. My soul is not meant for these modern times. I’m especially impressed when writers have the ability to paint sensual scenes in a subtle, crafty way that leaves the details to a reader’s imagination. My happy place is reading in a treehouse library that overlooks my forest. One day I’ll go there.
First, I am always on the hunt for a great mystery series, and this is a wonderful time travel mystery that switches between the modern era and takes the main character female back to the year 1810. I really got into the book in the historical setting; the writer did a great job painting a picture of Victorian England.
One of the reasons I chose this book to read was because it weaves in my favorite kind of romance story: slow burn! Sans explicit sex scenes, which, in my opinion, when it comes to sex scenes, less is more to the imagination.
When a 21st century property developer meets a Regency gentleman- what could possibly go wrong?
A great deal, it turns out. When Natasha Rowlands steps through a door in the house that will be her home she finds herself in 1810 with not only a Regency gentleman, but also a murder victim on the premises. If it is a shock for her, it is equally disconcerting for Lord Halwell's steward, his natural son, but neither of them are prepared for a serial killer, the mystery of Lord Halwell's second wife or the growing attraction between them.
I get a fuzzy, euphoric feeling when I see a room full of books I can smell and touch. Thrillers, mysteries, epic fantasies, classics, romance… Ah, to find narratives with strong characters, amazing worlds, and thick plots that I can get lost in! A little spice is always nice, but please don’t violate me with explicit obscenities. My soul is not meant for these modern times. I’m especially impressed when writers have the ability to paint sensual scenes in a subtle, crafty way that leaves the details to a reader’s imagination. My happy place is reading in a treehouse library that overlooks my forest. One day I’ll go there.
Ahhh! I loved this one. It was epic fantasy at its finest, with compelling characters and a style of writing that had me enthralled from start to finish. I felt the Norse-inspired world-building was magnificent. I was caught up in the plot, the frustration, the desire.
Another slow burn that had me still thinking about it two days after I’d finished it.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A shield maiden blessed by the gods battles to unite a nation under a power-hungry king—while fighting her growing desire for his fiery son—in the first book of a Norse-inspired fantasy romance duology from the author of The Bridge Kingdom series.
“THE must-read fantasy of 2024!”—Jennifer L. Armentrout, author of From Blood and Ash
Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back.
Freya’s dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl,…
As well as being a novelist, I am also a script editor for film and TV. I specialise in thriller narratives and big themes in screenwriting, so it's no accident I am drawn to them in fiction too. Dystopian worlds offer such a rich backdrop for the BIG questions and observations. By putting new societies and threats under the microscope in stories, it can hold a mirror up to what's going on in real life. I think of dystopian novels as being akin to the canaries in the coal mine: they are not only cathartic, they sound the warning bell on where we are going as a society ourselves.
I love this book because of Katniss Everdeen's depth. She’s not just another “kickass hottie”, she’s complex, with a powerful character arc driven by a deep sense of responsibility.
The book’s commentary on mental health and Katniss' parentification resonated with me personally. The story world of all the districts and President Snow's iron grip on them is well-drawn and has parallels to our own, too.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...
I have been a lover of histories and mysteries for as long as I can remember. Equal parts museum junkie and Dateline addict, I cannot get enough of history and whodunnits. From Poirot and Conan Doyle to Bernard Cornwall and Ken Follett, I love them all. As a kid, reading with a flashlight under the covers was a favorite pastime, and I wore out my library card. As an adult, I head to the true crime section of the bookstore first. I love that there are books that blend my two passions so well, and I hope you enjoy this list of historical mysteries as much as I do.
I feel that Sherlock Holmes and Cyrus Barker would be friends, but even more so, Dr. Watson and Thomas Llewelyn would have much to discuss. I was hesitant to begin a new series set in Victorian London, but I’m so glad I read this book and every book in the series that followed.
It Involved is a twisty mystery rich in setting and history. Barker and Llewelyn are a formidable duo when it comes to crime fighting and detection, and Llewelyn’s humor offsets (and sometimes ratchets up) the tension.
An atmospheric debut novel set on the gritty streets of Victorian London, Some Danger Involved introduces detective Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, as they work to solve the gruesome murder of a young scholar in London's Jewish ghetto.
When the eccentric and enigmatic Cyrus Barker takes on the recent murder case of a young scholar in London's Jewish ghetto, he realizes that he must hire an assistant, and out of all who answer an ad for a position with "some danger involved," he chooses downtrodden Llewelyn, a gutsy young man with a murky past.
Not a lot of guys would appreciate having their wives dump a stiff into the middle of a perfectly lovely lecture. My husband, the archivist, was a little nonplussed. But that’s what happens when you’re married to a mystery writer. And since I write historical mysteries, and the lecture was about the history of Los Angeles, that’s how The Old Los Angeles series happened. I also have the Freddie and Kathy series, set in the 1920s, and the Operation Quickline series, set in the 1980s. And being married to an archivist is not only a blast, it’s a big help.
The story may evoke the rip-roaring thrillers of yore in terms of probability, but dang, from the first lines, I was hooked. There is nothing like seeing 19th-century Egypt through the eyes of Amelia Peabody.
I could practically hear the calls of the crowded streets of Cairo, feel the warmth of the desert sand and the spookiness of a night in a canyon. It was not intentional, I promise, but Miss Peabody’s voice may have had the tiniest bit of influence on a certain Victorian lady that I write about–and this book is why.
Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' most brilliant and best-loved creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her shocking men's pants and no-nonsense attitude!
In this first adventure, our headstrong heroine decides to use her substantial inheritance to see the world. On her travels, she rescues a gentlewoman in distress - Evelyn Barton-Forbes - and the two become friends. The two companions continue to Egypt where they face mysteries, mummies and the redoubtable Radcliffe Emerson, an outspoken archaeologist, who doesn't need women to help him solve mysteries -- at least that's what he…
Growing up in Indiana and Illinois meant that Chicago has always been, for me, the city—the place where people went to make a name for themselves and took the world by storm. From my local Carnegie Library, I read voraciously across genres—history, science, literature. They transported me out of my small town—across the universe sometimes. I learned that setting in fiction was for me a major feature of my enjoyment, and Chicago was where I set my own mystery series. These books, when I read them, explored that grand metropolis—and brought Chicago to life on and off the page. I hope you enjoy these books as much as I have.
It is a book that deep dives into a historical event, in this case, the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. Check. It is a nonfiction book that reads like a gripping thriller, in this case, the serial killer H.H. Holmes, who built a three-story building featuring secret rooms, torture chambers, and a crematorium. Check. Chicago leaps off the page. By the end of the book, I was able to envision the massive exposition, its hundreds of temporary buildings, all white colored, interlaced with ponds and canals.
Much like that exposition helped raise Chicago up from its Great Fire, so I could see a Chicago of the past, in a glorious triumph of industry and innovation. Oh, and yeah, a serial killer constructing a horrific murder building.
The Chicago World Fair was the greatest fair in American history. This is the story of the men and women whose lives it irrevocably changed and of two men in particular- an architect and a serial killer. The architect is Daniel Burnham, a man of great integrity and depth. It was his vision of the fair that attracted the best minds and talents of the day. The killer is Henry H. Holmes. Intelligent as well as handsome and charming, Holmes opened a boarding house which he advertised as 'The World's Fair Hotel' Here in the neighbourhood where he was once…
Ever since I read the work of Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, and Georgette Heyer at an impressionable age, nineteenth-century England has fascinated me. My mother, a lifelong reader, is responsible for sparking this obsession. She never cared that I wanted to read “grown-up books” or later tried to discourage me from majoring in English. After college, I went on to teach British literature to high school students and to write two mystery series, one set during the Regency period, the other taking place half a century later. This new Victorian series introduces a bored spinster who finds her purpose in life as a detective.
My final choice is Jennifer Ashley’s book, the first in a delightful mystery series starring a cook. While the mystery itself is well done, it is the characters who elevate this novel, not to mention the detailed descriptions of life and cookery in a Victorian kitchen.
Our sleuth, Kat Holloway, wields her enormous integrity and insight just as effectively as her kitchen knives. And her love interest, the enigmatic Daniel McAdam, is tons of fun too!
Victorian class lines are crossed when cook Kat Holloway is drawn into a murder that reaches all the way to the throne.
Highly sought-after young cook Kat Holloway takes a position in a Mayfair mansion and soon finds herself immersed in the odd household of Lord Rankin. Kat is unbothered by the family’s eccentricities as long as they stay away from her kitchen, but trouble finds its way below stairs when her young Irish assistant is murdered.
Intent on discovering who killed the helpless kitchen maid, Kat turns to the ever-capable Daniel McAdam, who is certainly much more than the…
