Forthcoming Historical Novels for 2025
The Historical Novel Society lists mainstream and small press titles for historical novels set in eras from ancient times to the mid-1970s. Details are based on publishers’ descriptions and are compiled by Fiona Sheppard (US, CAN, UK, ANZ).
Other than short excerpts, please link to this page rather than copying the entries – thank you!
See our guide to forthcoming historical novels for 2024 for previous releases.
For children’s titles, see our guides to children’s and YA historical novels out in 2025 and in 2024.
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. Please visit us again soon!
Last update: September 19, 2024
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
January 2025
Isa Arsén, The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf, Putnam (mid-century novel about two Shakespearean actors during one summer that will drive them closer or rip them apart)
Lauren J. A. Bear, Mother of Rome, Berkley (reimagining of the earliest Roman legend: the twins, Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of history’s greatest empire, and the woman whose sacrifice made it all possible)
S. J. Bennett, A Death in Diamonds, Crooked Lane (two murders in Chelsea plague amateur detective Queen Elizabeth II. Fourth book in series)
Lauralee Bliss, When the Avalanche Roared, Barbour (one of six stories about historic disasters which transformed landscapes and lives)
Xavier Bosch, trans. Samantha Mateo, What the Light Touches, Amazon Crossing (dual timeline tale of love and intrigue about a woman on the cusp of middle age, her grandma, and a houseguest who changes everything)
Julie Brooks, The Heirloom, Headline Review (dual timeline tale set in Brisbane 2024 and Sussex 1821)
Lila Cain, The Blackbirds of St Giles, Simon & Schuster UK (1782 London; Daniel & his sister Pearl escape a sugar plantation and arrive in London where they are callously tricked into the underworld labyrinth of the rookeries of St Giles)
Elizabeth Camden, When Stars Light the Sky, Bethany House (Gilded Age romance in which Inga and Benedict will be swept into a dangerous world on the brink of war)
Maggie Campbell, The Housekeeper of Holcombe Hall, Michael Joseph (1929, Lancashire; Holcombe Hall’s owner has passed away, and as the roaring twenties ends the upstairs and downstairs residents begin a new era)
Costanza Casati, Babylonia, Sourcebooks Landmark (novel based on a legend which tells of an orphan born into a life of toil and anonymity who rises from nothing to rule kingdoms and command armies)
P. C. Cast, Boudicca, William Morrow (inspired by the history of Boudicca’s attack on Roman Britain, novel is a retelling of one of the most legendary female warriors of all time)
Megan Chance, Glamorous Notions, Lake Union (a costume designer’s past casts a long shadow over her well-constructed lies in this story about stolen identities, friendship, and betrayal)
Karissa Chen, Homeseeking, Sceptre (told in alternating narratives, novel spans seven decades, through the most tumultuous period of modern Chinese history up to contemporary times)
Elizabeth Costello, The Good War, Regal House (dual timeline novel set in 1948 and 1964 dealing with the impact of war, gender roles, and the role of the artist in society)
Judith Cutler, In at the Death, Severn House (the future of Thorncroft House and its occupants is in the balance while a mysterious murder brings up a past best forgotten, in this Victorian upstairs-downstairs murder mystery)
Fiona Davis, The Stolen Queen, Dutton (novel transports readers from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back. Set in Egypt, 1936 and NYC, 1978)
Jennifer Deibel, Heart of the Glen, Revell (Saoirse Fagan finds a new start at a sheep farm in the wild hills of Dunlewey, Ireland. But master tweed weaver Owen McCready isn’t used to accepting help from outsiders)
Pepsi Demacque-Crockett, Island Song, HarperCollins (a story of finding home sweeps readers from the Caribbean to 1950s London)
Tara Dorabji, Call Her Freedom, Simon & Schuster (novel about one woman’s love for her family; an investigation into colonialism’s relationship with loss and innocence spanning from 1969 to 2022)
Anton du Beke, A Dance for the King, Orion (in London 1942, spies have infiltrated high society at the Buckingham hotel, alongside a wave of American GIs)
Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, Chris Crabtree, Hold Strong, Lake Union (based on true events―about love, heroism, and resilience during the darkest chapters of World War II)
Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter, Dutton (novel of marriage is a reminder that true love lives in small, everyday moments)
David Wright Faladé, The New Internationals, Atlantic Monthly Press (1947 Paris; novel interweaves a coming-of-age, a cross-cultural romance, and a portrait of international youth at a definitive moment in contemporary history)
Jennie Felton, Rosie’s Dilemma, Headline (unfolds against the backdrop of war with all its hardship, danger, heroism and sacrifice, and the anxiety for loved ones which no-one can escape)
Lily Fielding, Orphan of the Storm, Penguin (19th-century saga about found family, romance and triumph over adversity, set in a small village in 1876)
Laura Frantz, The Indigo Heiress, Revell (to settle her family’s debts and secure a suitable marriage for her sister, a colonial American indigo heiress is forced to wed a Scottish merchant she loathes)
Amira Ghenim, trans. Miled Faiza, trans. Karen McNeil, A Calamity of Noble Houses, Europa Editions (a complex mosaic of secrets, memories, accusations, regrets, and emotions, journeying through upheavals of history from 1930s to present day)
Elizabeth Gill, A Sister’s Dream, Quercus (saga in which Catrin determines to change her life for the better by becoming a doctor)
Aaron Gwyn, The Cannibal Owl, Belle Point Press (coming-of-age story inspired by the real-life figure Levi English, a settler who ran away to live with the Comanche)
Alex Hay, The Queen of Fives, Graydon House/Headline Review (1898; novel set against the most magnificent wedding of the season, as a mysterious heiress sets her sights on London’s most illustrious family)
Grady Hendrix, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, Berkley (1970; story set in Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret)
Wendy Holden, The Teacher of Auschwitz, Zaffre/Harper (the inspirational and uplifting true story of Fredy Hirsch)
Daniel Huhn, trans. Rachel Stanyon, I Will Come Back For You, Ithaka (true story of a Jewish teenager who escaped Nazi Germany for the UK and returned to his homeland to liberate his parents from a concentration camp)
Michael Jecks, Death Comes in Threes, Severn House (princess Elizabeth’s unlikely assassin finds himself on the hook for two murders in this light-hearted Tudor mystery series)
Flora Johnston, The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay, Allison & Busby (1927; three women, a fearless aviatrix, a jaded wife and a secretive academic strain to reach for their dreams on the cusp of an uncertain future)
William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone, Purgatory Crossing, Pinnacle (new historical Western in the Nathan Stark series)
Heather Kaufman, Before the King, Bethany House (weaves a tale of faith, resilience, and love amid the danger of King Herod’s court)
Janice Kidd, A Tea-Dark Bearing, Regal House (opening in 1801, two formerly enslaved women devise a daring plan of escape through a rugged, untamed wilderness, fleeing the dangerous prejudice of unscrupulous men)
Anita Kopacz, The Wind on Her Tongue, Atria/Black Privilege Publishing (sequel to Shallow Waters, Oya is sent to New Orleans to study under Marie Laveau, the Queen of Voodoo, beginning a journey across the still young America)
Caroline Lamond, The Socialites, One More Chapter (in the 1920s, three young girls enter a strict, cheerless convent school in a quiet London suburb. Six years later they leave, to change the world …)
Ed Lee, The Poydras Ring, Addison & Highsmith (novel set in New France – amid the colonial life of duels, slave rebellions, paramours and war, a powerful voodoo amulet is passed down through generations)
Howard Linskey, A Serpent in the Garden, Canelo (the greatest writer who ever lived turns spy in London 1592)
Robert Littell, Bronshtein in the Bronx, Soho Press (portrait of ten weeks in the life of Leon Trotsky)
Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, Elita, TriQuarterly (winter 1951; a child development specialist travels to Elita in the Puget Sound where guards of the penitentiary have discovered an animal-like adolescent living outside the prison walls)
Annie Lyons, A Girl’s Guide to Winning the War, Headline (WWII tale of unexpected friendship, community and two remarkable women who change the course of the war)
Bonnie MacBird, The Serpent Under, Collins Crime Club (murder, jealousy, and deceit underscore three interlocking mysteries as Holmes and Watson take on a high-profile case at Windsor Castle)
Tarris Marie, Empress Creed, Black Odyssey Media (romantic drama set amidst the glitz and grit of 1930’s Chicago, where post-Depression hardship and Jim Crow injustice still rule)
Beezy Marsh, Queen of Diamonds, William Morrow (third in a crime saga series about real-life gang girl, Alice Diamond)
Edward Marston, Mystery at the Station Hotel, Allison & Busby (Shrewsbury, 1866; a suicide of a railway executive turns into murder for Inspector Colbeck)
Katherine Mezzacappa, The Ballad of Mary Kearney, Addison & Highsmith (set in County Down, Dublin, and London, story told through letters, diaries, testimonies, and trial proceedings, gives voice to Ireland’s tumultuous history)
Stacy Lynn Miller, The Songbird, Severn River (novel of espionage, love, and betrayal in WWII Brazil)
Susan Cummins Miller, My Bonney Lies Under, Artemesia Publishing (August 1885; on board the steamship Oceanic, Keridec Rees is carrying her father’s ashes home, when her friend and companion, Anne Bonney, disappears)
Colin Mills, Bitter Passage, Lake Union (a 19th-century Arctic expedition descends into a chilling nightmare in a novel of discovery, rescue, deliverance, and survival by any means)
Patrick Modiano, trans. Mark Polizzotti, Ballerina, Yale University Press (a novel of art, desire, and time lost and regained, in 1960s Paris)
Kate Mosse, The Map of Bones, Macmillan (dual timeline conclusion to The Joubert Family Chronicles, set in southern Africa in 1688 and 1862)
Paraic O’Donnell, The Naming of the Birds, Tin House (Inspector Cutter and Sergeant Bliss solve their strangest and most personal case yet in second installment of Victorian murder mystery series)
Elaine Neil Orr, Dancing Woman, Blair (portrait of a young female artist, torn between two men and two cultures, struggling to find her passion and her purpose in the 1960s)
Micah Nemerever, These Violent Delights, Magpie (debut novel about two college students in early 70s Pittsburgh, whose escalating obsession with one another leads to an act of unspeakable violence
Caryl Phillips, Another Man in the Street, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (novel about relationships in 1960s London)
Amber Raven, The Weybourne Witches, One More Chapter (full description forthcoming)
Midge Raymond, Floreana, Little A (intertwines the emotional journeys of two women bound by dark secrets and the lengths to which they’ll go to find their place in the world)
Renée Rosen, Let’s Call Her Barbie, Berkley (beginning with the innovation which becomes an icon, from 1956 through the following decades of highs and lows)
Tom Ross, Miss Abracadabra, Deep Vellum Publishing (tells a story of intergenerational change and conflict in a Black American family in the pre-Civil Rights era)
Eden Royce, Psychopomp & Circumstance, Tordotcom (southern Gothic historical fantasy featuring Phee St. Margaret, a daughter born to a family of free Black business owners in New Charleston)
John Sayles, To Save the Man, Melville House (1890; sheds light on the Wounded Knee Massacre, and the ‘cultural genocide’ experienced by the Native American children at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School)
Bernhard Schlink, trans. Charlotte Collins, The Granddaughter, HarperVia (1960s exploration of the legacy of German reunification and the rise of modern populism)
Betty Shamieh, Too Soon, Avid Reader Press (saga follows one family’s journey from fleeing war-torn Jaffa in 1948, chasing the American Dream in the 60s & 70s, to hustling in the NY theatre scene post-9/11)
Cathy Sharp, An Orphan’s Story, HarperCollins (tale of a young boy’s journey to find home)
Amélie Skoda, Bethnal Green, Manilla Press (1971; explores the themes of sacrifice and heartbreak, the power of using your voice and the will to build a life of one’s own)
Barbara Southard, Unruly Human Hearts, She Writes (a tale of faith, passion, idealism, and the limitations faced by women in the nineteenth century)
A. L. Sowards, Beyond the Crescent Sky, Shadow Mountain (1383; as the Ottoman Empire extends its grip into the Balkans, events force Ivan and Helena to choose between loyalty or following their hearts)
Dana Stabenow, Abduction of a Slave, Aries (historical mystery in the Eye of Isis series set in Ancient Egypt during Cleopatra’s reign)
Lucy Steeds, The Artist, John Murray (Provence, 1920; an aspiring journalist believes he will make his name by interviewing artist Edouard Tartuffe, while his niece Ettie has spent years cultivating her secrets)
Julia Bryan Thomas, The Kennedy Girl, Sourcebooks Landmark (a journey to France through the eyes of a wide-eyed American orphan who becomes embroiled in an international espionage scheme)
Gemma Tizzard, Grace of the Empire State, Gallery (debut novel in which a daring dancer must take her twin brother’s place as a riveter high atop the in-progress Empire State Building to save her family from ruin)
Joanna Toye, A New Chapter at the Little Penguin Bookshop, Century (continuing saga as Carrie’s business selling books is thriving, as her beloved Mike returns from war)
Karen Tuft, Lady Anna’s Favor, Shadow Mountain (London, England, 1814; Lady Anna Clifton will stop at nothing to find her missing brother)
Alexandra Vasti, Earl Crush, St. Martin’s/Corvus (romcom in which a reclusive earl’s life is turned upside down when a stranger shows up on his doorstep)
Jenni L. Walsh, Ace, Marvel, Spy, Harper Muse (based on the life of a very real American tennis icon)
Minette Walters, The Players, Allen & Unwin (a story of guile, deceit and compassion during the dark days of The Bloody Assizes, England 1685)
Tiffany L. Warren, The Unexpected Diva, William Morrow (brings Black opera singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield to life in a novel of the forgotten diva’s remarkable story)
Jeri Westerson, Rebellious Grace, Severn House (Henry VIII’s court jester Will Somers turns reluctant inquisitor once again when a grotesque murder within the palace walls is linked to the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion)
Charmaine Wilkerson, Good Dirt, Ballantine (the daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom)
Susan C. Wilson, Helen’s Judgment, Neem Tree Press (first-person retelling that redefines the story of Greek mythology’s Helen of Troy)
Jane Yang, The Lotus Shoes, Park Row/Harper Canada/Sphere (set in 1800s; focuses on an enslaved maid and her wealthy mistress as they survive the restrictions placed on them as women)
Ellen Yardley, Eleanor and the Cold War, Kensington (1950s Cold War historical mystery debut featuring the former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s indispensable assistant)
Mosab Hassan Yousef, James Becket, The Last Prophet, Forefront Books (based on the life of the prophet Muhammed, one-time shepherd and outcast revolutionary)
Guixing Zhang, trans. Carlos Rojas, Elephant Herd, Columbia Univ. Press (narrative begins in the 1970s and explores the repercussions of Sarawak’s mid-century Communist insurgency, focusing on a boy, his extended family, and his Indigenous classmate and travel companion)
February 2025
Marie Benedict, The Queens of Crime, St. Martin’s (a story of Agatha Christie’s legendary rival Dorothy Sayers, the race to solve a murder, and the power of friendship among women)
S. J. Bennett, The Queen Who Came in from the Cold, Zaffre (1961; fifth book in the Her Majesty the Queen Investigates mystery series)
H.W. “Buzz” Bernard, Where the Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder, Severn River (amidst the turmoil of World War II, a daring Army Air Forces aviator is swept into an odyssey that will carry him to the far corners of the earth)
Kay Blythe, Murder at Merry Beggars Hall, No Exit (cosy mystery set December 1922 with society dressmaker Jemima Flowerday)
Roger Celestin, The Delicate Beast, Bellevue Literary Press (a novel of a life lived in the shadow of history, portraying the pernicious legacy of political violence)
Eden Francis Compton, Belle, Level 4 Press (a true-ish story about Belle Gunness, a modern, liberated woman, esteemed by everyone in a small Indiana town, in 1890)
Mary Connealy, Whispers of Fortune, Bethany House (adventure of courage, danger, and love in the Wild West, in 1875 California)
Martin Davies, Mrs Hudson and the Capricorn Incident, Allison & Busby (Sherlock Holmes looks to longstanding housekeeper Mrs Hudson, and her able assistant housemaid Flotsam, to assist in a case)
Camille Di Maio, Come Fly With Me, Lake Union (in 1962, hope takes flight for two women navigating an adventurous new life in a novel about love, friendship and escape)
Rachel Donohue, The Glass House, Corvus (dual timeline tale of two sisters and their secrets, of love, regret and vengeance)
Rachel Louise Driscoll, Nephthys, Harvill Secker (Victorian-era Egypt; story of a daughter with an ability to read hieroglyphs, and a forgotten goddess whose story can undo the mistakes of the past)
Kat Dunn, Hungerstone, Manilla Press (set against the uncontrolled appetite of the Industrial Revolution, novel is a sapphic reworking of Carmilla, the book that inspired Dracula)
Elyse Durham, Maya & Natasha, Mariner (debut novel set in the fascinating world of Cold War Soviet ballet follows the fates of twin sisters whose bond is competitive, complicated, but never broken)
Lesley Eames, A Foundling at the Wartime Bookshop, Penguin (fifth in the WWII saga series)
Erin Crosby Eckstine, Junie, Ballantine (a young girl faces a life-altering decision, navigating love, friendship, and her sister’s ghost as the Civil War looms)
Allison Epstein, Fagin The Thief, Doubleday (reimagining the world of Charles Dickens and reclaiming the character of Fagin from the antisemitic stereotype)
Linda Epstein, Ally Malinenko, Liz Parker, The Other March Sisters, Kensington (reimagining of Little Women in which Jo’s sisters grapple with societal strictures, queer love, motherhood, chronic illness, artistic ambition, and more)
Charles B. Fancher, Red Clay, Blackstone (chronicles the interwoven lives of an enslaved Black family and their white owners as the Civil War ends and Reconstruction begins)
Virginia Feito, Victorian Psycho, Liveright (novel that probes the psyche of a bloodthirsty governess in the Victorian era)
Amanda Flower, I Died for Beauty, Berkley (Amherst, 1857; when a blaze takes a neighbor’s home and his life, Emily Dickinson and her maid Willa have a burning desire to crack the case)
Kelly Frost, The Kings Head, Atlantic (1957; debut of conflict and camaraderie, carving a slice of history for London’s forgotten Teddy Girls)
Kate Furnivall, The Crash, Hodder & Stoughton (in Paris 1933, people’s lives are torn apart by a single terrifying event)
Nicole Galland, Boy, William Morrow (thought-provoking historical tale of love, political intrigue, and gender-swapping set in the theatre world of Elizabethan London)
Peter Golden, Their Shadows Deep, Lake Union (imagines the connection between JFK’s presidential campaign and an ex-cop’s investigation into her husband’s murder)
Esther Goldenberg, Seventeen Spoons, Row House Publishing (delves into the life of Joseph, the youngest and most favored son in the tribe of Jacob. Second in the Desert Songs Trilogy)
Kat Gordon, The Swell, Manilla Press (Iceland 1910; moving between the turn of the 20th century and the 1970s a dark mystery is unravelled, rich in Icelandic myth)
Gail Milissa Grant, The Sable Cloak, Grand Central (novel set in the South and Midwest during the time of Jim Crow that reveals a little-known part of American pre-civil rights history of Black intrigue and power)
Stephen Greco, The Last American Heiresses, John Scognamiglio (draws readers into the lives of legendary heiresses Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton and the public rivalry that defined them)
Thomas Guay, Chesapeake Bound, McBooks (1763; a story of desperate immigrants looking for adventure, advancement, love, and most of all a sense of belonging in the colonies)
Amanda Hampson, The Tea Ladies, Penguin AU (cosy crime novel set in Sydney in the swinging sixties)
Penny Haw, Follow Me to Africa, Sourcebooks Landmark (dual timeline novel inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world’s most distinguished paleoanthropologists)
India Hayford, The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree, John Scognamiglio (set in rural Arkansas in 1967, Southern novel draws readers into a visceral tale of secrets, desperate choices, and belonging)
Dani Heywood-Lonsdale, The Portrait Artist, Bloomsbury UK (an art historian determines to uncover the true story about Timothy Ponden-Hall, a controversial artist thought to have died decades earlier)
Van Hoang, Silver and Smoke, 47 North (historical fantasy in the golden age of Hollywood where success for two Vietnamese dreamers means conjuring a magical break)
Pam Jenoff, Last Twilight in Paris, Park Row (a Parisian department store, a mysterious necklace and a woman’s quest to unlock a decade-old mystery are at the center of this novel of love and survival, set in 1953 & 1943)
Nancy Johnson, People of Means, William Morrow (dual timeline novel about a mother and daughter each seeking justice and following their dreams during moments of social reckoning—1960s Nashville and 1992 Chicago)
Laura Jones, The Woman in the Wallpaper, Sphere (as revolution blazes across France, the lives of three women are set to collide in unimaginable ways)
Alka Joshi, Six Days in Bombay, MIRA (novel follows a young Anglo-Indian nurse who embarks on a journey from her home in Bombay, through Prague, Florence, Paris, and London, to uncover a mystery)
Julia Kelly, The Dressmakers of London, Gallery (novel about two estranged sisters who inherit their late mother’s dressmaking shop in London during World War II)
Vaseem Khan, City of Destruction, Hodder & Stoughton (new mystery featuring the inimitable Persis Wadia, set in Bombay, 1950)
Thomas Kohnstamm, Supersonic, Counterpoint (illuminates themes of identity, displacement, destruction, and reinvention that give rise to all great American cities)
Carolyn Korsmeyer, Riddle of Spirit and Bone, Regal House (a skeleton discovered buried beneath a city sidewalk leads a group of student archaeologists to the 19th century spiritualist movement)
Ann-Helén Laestadius, trans. Rachel Willson-Broyles, Punished, Scribner (story of five Indigenous children forced to attend a government-run boarding school in 1950s Sweden)
Soraya M. Lane, The Pianist’s Wife, Lake Union (fiction inspired by true stories of those who chose to defy the Nazis from within Germany)
Elizabeth Langston, Once You Were Mine, Lake Union (in a quiet North Carolina town in 1968, a seventeen-year-old girl’s life is forever changed when a summer romance leads to an unplanned pregnancy)
Barbara Leahy, Rembrandt’s Promise, Bonnier (1642; the Dutch Golden Age is underway, as an impoverished widow from Edam, becomes nursemaid in the house of renowned painter, Rembrandt)
Tod Lending, The Umbrella Maker’s Son, Harper Paperbacks (in which a Jewish teenager in World War II Poland fights to save his life and find the young woman who holds his heart)
Canisia Lubrin, illus. Torkwase Dyson, Code Noir, Soft Skull (fifty-nine linked fictions based on the infamous real-life “Code Noir,” a set of historical decrees passed in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France)
Alyssa Maxwell, Two Weddings and a Murder, Kensington (June 1922; as Lady Phoebe and her betrothed say their vows of holy matrimony, a killer has vowed unholy vengeance on the town’s chief inspector)
Rachel Scott McDaniel, The Dreams We Knew, Kregel (blend of mystery and second-chance romance in twenties New York)
Patrice McDonough, A Slash of Emerald, Kensington (Victorian-set mystery series where medical examiner Julia Lewis, and her partner, DI Richard Tennant, investigate a string of murders. Julia Lewis series book two)
Steven A. McKay, King of Wessex, Canelo (third installment of the Alfred the Great series)
Amy Patricia Meade, Death Upon a Star, Severn House (historical cozy featuring obsession, power and murder, set in 1939, Los Angeles)
Shara Moon, Let Us March On, William Morrow (inspired by the life of real-life crusader, Lizzie McDuffie, who as a maid in FDR’s White House, spearheaded the Civil Rights movement of her time)
Jean P. Moore, Crossing from Shore to Shore, Running Wild Press (dual timeline love story set against the backdrop of the WWI Red Scare and the Spanish Flu)
Victoria Christopher Murray, Harlem Rhapsody, Berkley (in 1919, amidst civil and social unrest, in a place called Harlem, Black pride is evident everywhere…in music, theatre, fashion and the art)
Lars Mytting, trans. Deborah Dawkin, The Night of the Scourge, The Overlook Press/Maclehose (family drama set in WWII–era Norway)
Suzanne Nelson, The Librarians of Lisbon, Zando Projects (with World War II raging across Europe, best friends Selene and Beatrice are enlisted by the U.S. Intelligence Office to infiltrate the Axis spy network)
Joseph O’Connor, The Ghosts of Rome, Europa Editions (second book in the Rome Escape Line trilogy, set in Italy 1944)
Jamie Ogle, As Sure as the Sea, Tyndale House (Christian historical romance novel set in Eastern Roman Empire, AD 310)
Victoria Purman, The Radio Hour, Harper Muse (a funny look at the golden years of radio broadcasting in post-war Australia)
Frances Quinn, The Lost Passenger, Simon & Schuster UK (1912; uplifting story about grabbing your chances with both hands, and being brave enough to find out who you really are)
Youssef Rakha, The Dissenters, Graywolf Press (a transgressive novel that spans seventy years of Egyptian history from the 1950s to the present)
Nancy Revell, A Secret in the Family, Century (saga follow-up to the Shipyard Girls set in 1945 Sunderland and 1953 Durham)
Evelio Rosero, trans. Victor Meadowcroft, House of Fury, New Directions (brings to light Colombia’s violent history on one night in 1970)
Robert Seethaler, trans. Katy Derbyshire, The Café with No Name, Europa Editions/Canongate (a story of the hopes, kindnesses and everyday heroism of one community in 1966)
Victoria Shaun, City of the Sun, Melville House (in modern-day Hollywood, a copywriter uncovers the secret of a 1904 movie that was never finished; dual timeline set in present and 1904 NY, Hollywood and Berlin)
Jill Eileen Smith, Dawn of Grace, Revell (on the brink of despair, Mary Magdalene is about to discover that while the life of faith is never perfect, perfect love casts out fear–and Jesus makes all things new)
Richard Strachan, The Unrecovered, Raven Books (debut inspired by the legend of Gallondean, which has it that if the heirs to the house hear the howling of a spectral hound nearby, their death will quickly follow)
Stephen Spotswood, Dead in the Frame, Doubleday (book 5 in Pentecost and Parker series, as Will scrambles to solve a murder before Lillian takes the fall for the crime)
Steve Stern, A Fool’s Kabbalah, Melville House (in the ruins of postwar Europe, the world’s leading expert on the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism goes on a journey to recover sacred books stolen by the Nazis)
Sarah Sundin, Midnight on the Scottish Shore, Revell (story takes you to the wild Scottish seaside, where danger lurks under the surface of the water–and in the depths of the human heart)
Abdellah Taïa, trans. Emma Ramadan, Live In Your Light, Seven Stories (three moments in the life of Malika, a Moroccan countrywoman, from 1954 to 1999; from French colonization to the death of King Hassan II)
Grace Tiffany, The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter, Harper (novel about Judith Shakespeare, a middle-aged apothecary and midwife during the English Civil War)
Elizabeth A. Tucker, The Pale Flesh of Wood, She Writes (twentieth-century multigenerational braided narrative examining the rippling effects of trauma and perceived fault after a loved one’s suicide)
Jack Wang, The Riveter, House of Anansi Press/HarperVia (debut novel explores what one man must sacrifice to belong in the only home he has ever truly known)
Larry Weill, The Dutchman’s Gold, North Country Books (historical novel involving a pair of situational treasure hunters from New York who are enticed into a search for one of America’s largest treasures)
Steve Wick, The Ruins, Pegasus Crime (thriller set in 1954, where the grim horrors of Nazis in America collide with the manufacturing of the suburban dream)
Charlotte Whitney, A Tiny Piece of Blue, She Writes (novel following a homeless young girl as she struggles to survive during the Great Depression)
Jenny Williamson, Enemy of My Dreams, Canary Street (in the last days of the Roman Empire a princess and Goth warlord forge a dangerous alliance in this historical fantasy)
Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, Mutual Interest, Bloomsbury (novel about three queer people united by marriage, love, and their budding business empire in turn-of-the-twentieth-century New York City)
Kell Woods, Upon a Starlit Tide, Tor/Voyager AU (fairy tale-inspired historical fantasy set in Saint-Malo, Brittany, 1758)
March 2025
Anita Abriel, American Housewife, Lake Union (NYC 1950; for a beloved television star in 1950s America, image and reality clash in a novel about fame, marriage, and secrets)
Laura Anthony, The Women on Platform Two, Gallery (in 1970s Dublin, all forms of contraception are forbidden, but an intrepid group of women will risk everything to change that in this little-known true story)
Libby Ashworth, The Widow’s Shillings, Michael Joseph (third in Cavanah series, with her daughter, Agnes, married, Kitty must focus on her youngest children and their dream of making it across the sea to America)
Alice Austen, 33 Place Brugmann, Grove Press/Bloomsbury (a love story, mystery, and philosophical puzzle—told in the singular voices of the residents of a Beaux Arts apartment building in Belgium in 1939)
Cecily Blench, Secrets of Malta, Zaffre (1943; while investigating the disappearance of her former lover, Margarita stumbles upon the hunt for a dangerous spy)
Bob the Drag Queen, Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert, Gallery (novel about American hero Harriet Tubman that remixes history into a fresh, dynamic novel about love, freedom, salvation, and music)
Chris Bohjalian, The Jackal’s Mistress, Doubleday (the wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she’s willing to risk for the life of a stranger)
Rhys Bowen, Clare Broyles, Silent as the Grave, Minotaur (retired Detective Molly Murphy Sullivan goes undercover)
Jessica Bull, A Fortune Most Fatal, Union Square (a witty murder mystery featuring Jane Austen as an intrepid sleuth— second installment in the Miss Austen Investigates series set in 1797)
Lucy Caldwell, These Days, Zando/SJP Lit (follows two sisters over the course of four nights as they reckon with their futures in war-torn Belfast)
Melodie Campbell, The Silent Film Star Murders, Cormorant (Lady Lucy Revelstoke reboards her ocean liner for another high society murder mystery, book 3, on the high seas)
Brian Castleberry, The Californians, Mariner Books (novel that spans 100 years of American history, starting with the early days of cinema)
Crystal Caudill, Written in Secret, Kregel (in the heart of nineteenth-century Cincinnati, where justice is scarce and danger lurks in every shadow, one woman holds the power to rewrite fate)
Su Chang, The Immortal Woman, House of Anansi Press (a student Red Guard leader in 1960s Shanghai, escapes to America, ten years later, to become a true Westerner)
Veronica Chapa, Malinalli, Atria/Primero Sueno Press (retelling of the triumphs and sorrows of one of the most controversial and misunderstood women in Mexico’s history and mythology)
Joanne Clague, The Lightfingered Lass, Canelo (the House of Help for Friendless Girls, book 2. Victorian saga)
Iver P. Cooper, 1637: The Pacific Initiative, Baen (historical fantasy centering conflicting power struggles between the colonists and the native Americans)
Emily Critchley, The Undoing of Violet Claybourne, Sourcebooks Landmark (1938; gothic mystery following a young girl enthralled by the enigmatic Claybourne sisters and the tragedy that binds them together for good)
Jeanne M. Dams, Murder of a Recluse, Severn House (a warm-hearted 1920s historical mystery with a courageous heroine)
Ellie Dean, With Promises to Keep, Century (1947; Cliffehaven book 21 in which Peggy Reilly and the rest of the Cliffehaven community must pull together to keep everyone safe)
P. T. Deutermann, The Second Sun, St. Martin’s (historical thriller set during the waning months of World War II)
Emma Donoghue, The Paris Express, S&S/Summit Books (historical novel about an infamous 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station)
José Donoso, trans. Megan McDowell, The Mysterious Disappearance of the Marquise of Loria, New Directions (an elegy to the literary erotica of 1920s Madrid)
Ariel Dorfman, Allegro, Other Press (historical mystery set in 1789 tells of friendship and betrayal, and how music allows us to defy death)
Sarah M. Eden, The Tides of Time, Shadow Mountain (in 1793, a storm propels Lili forward through time, kindling a love that transcends the ages)
Katie Fforde, From London With Love, Century (1968 — Felicity arrives in London to stay with her mother, do a secretarial course – and meet a suitable man)
Elinor Florence, Finding Flora, Simon & Schuster (novel set in turn-of-the-century Alberta about a young woman on the run from her abusive husband who uses a legal loophole to claim a homestead in the Wild West)
Katie Flynn, Forgotten Child, Century (late summer 1940; Isla Donahue’s idyllic lifestyle comes to an abrupt end when her father sends her to the poorhouse)
January Gilchrist, My Sister’s Shadow, Crooked Lane (envy and desire infiltrate the lives of twin sisters in this gothic suspense set in England and New York City)
Leonard Goldberg, A Scandalous Affair, Pegasus Crime (a Daughter of Sherlock Holmes mystery in which Joanna Holmes must confront a shocking case of blackmail that threatens the highest levels of His Majesty’s government)
S. K. Golden, The Socialite’s Guide to Sleuthing & Secrets, Crooked Lane (hotel heiress Evelyn Murphy is on the hunt for a cunning killer and a mysterious thief in the third Pinnacle Hotel mystery)
C. W. Gortner, The Saint Laurent Muse, William Morrow (novel of fashion’s 1970s “It Girl” Loulou de la Falaise, and her life partying and designing with Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, and Halston)
Emilia Hart, The Sirens, St. Martin’s/The Borough Press (novel of mystery and magic, about four sisters separated by centuries, but bound together by the sea. Set in 2019, 1999 and 1800)
Gracie Hart, The Chocolate Box Girls at War, Michael Joseph (2nd book in saga set in York, 1940, where the Rowntrees factory is turned over to making munitions)
Sophie Haydock, Madame Matisse, Doubleday (novel about drama and betrayal; emotion and sex; glamour and tragedy, set in the 1930s art movement in France)
Lucy H. Hedrick, Six Weeks in Reno, Lake Union (a woman at a “divorce ranch” in 1930s Reno strives to live life on her own terms)
M. B. Henry, As the Storm Clouds Gather, Severn House (1915; novel of two young people drawn together through war)
Patti Callahan Henry, The Story She Left Behind, Atria (story of a legendary book, a lost mother, and a daughter’s search for them both)
Charlie N. Holmberg, Wizard of Most Wicked Ways, 47North (when dead enemies rise, grave matters of the heart, mind, and body clash in the fourth Whimbrel House Victorian fantasy novel)
Angela Hunt, The Daughter of Rome, Bethany House (tale of faith and sacrifice set against the rich tapestry of Nero’s ancient Rome)
Georgia Hunter, One Good Thing, Pamela Dorman Books (story of hardship and hope, courage and resilience, that follows one young woman’s journey through war-torn Italy)
Anna Jacobs, Hope Comes to Eastby End, Hodder & Stoughton (third book in the Eastby End saga series)
Guy Jenkin, Murder Most Foul, Legend Press (dark, witty murder mystery set in 1593 with amateur sleuths Will Shakespeare and Chris Marlowe’s sister, Ann)
Kath Jonathan, The Resistance Painter, Simon & Schuster (dual timeline examines the little-known story of Poland’s resistance army and the contemporary lives of two artists, grandmother and granddaughter, which are inextricably entwined)
Stephen Graham Jones, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, S&S/Saga Press (historical horror set in the American west in 1912 follows a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire looking for justice)
Dietrich Kalteis, Dirty Little War, ECW Press (crime novel set in mob-filled Chicago during the 1920s Prohibition)
Susanna Kearsley, The King’s Messenger, Sourcebooks Landmark (story of treachery, betrayal and love set in 1613 when James I/VI’s son and heir dies plunging the nation into mourning)
Jim Kelly, The Trinity Shelter, Allison & Busby (WWII murder mystery set in Cambridge, spring 1941)
Julia R. Kelly, The Fisherman’s Gift, Simon & Schuster/Harvill Secker (debut set in a Scottish village, in 1900, in the weeks after a young boy mysteriously washes up on shore, causing the buried secrets to come to light and rekindling an old love story)
Paulette Kennedy, The Artist of Blackberry Grange, Lake Union (a ghostly novel about family secrets, sacrifice, and lost loves)
Jackson Kuhl, The Island of Small Misfortunes, Regal House (gothic ghost mystery set on a private island in 1898)
Brianna Labuskes, The Boxcar Librarian, William Morrow (Depression-era novel about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library)
Kathryn Lasky, A Slant of Light, Severn House (1930s mystery; when students of St Ignatius go missing, painter and amateur sleuth Georgia O’Keeffe must infiltrate the school to figure out what’s going on)
Iris Mitlin Lav, Gitel’s Freedom, She Writes (narrative about the lives of Jewish immigrants in the early twentieth century)
Phil Lecomber, Midnight Streets, Titan Books (dark thriller set in 1920s Soho, featuring George Harley, a cockney private detective)
Rosanne Limoncelli, The Four Queens of Crime, Crooked Lane (first woman detective chief inspector in the CID, is determined to find a killer with the help of the four crime writers; Christie, Sayers, Marsh, and Allingham)
Andrew Ludington, Splinter Effect, Minotaur (time traveling archaeologist Rabbit Ward maneuvers through the past to recover a long-lost, precious menorah hiding out in ancient Rome)
Julianne MacLean, All Our Beautiful Goodbyes, Lake Union (1946 and 1995; tale of lost love and fallen dreams, set in remote Nova Scotia and spanning decades)
Sanam Mahloudji, The Persians, Scribner (travelling from the 1940s to early 2000s, a searching portrait of a family in crisis at the turn of the century, and an American family saga reinvented)
Lee Martin, The Evening Shades, Melville House (tells the story of two lonely people in a small Midwestern town slowly revealing their secrets to themselves, and each other)
Susan Meissner, A Map to Paradise, Berkley (mystery set during the McCarthy era in 1956 Malibu, California)
John Winn Miller, Rescue Run, Bancroft Press (after escaping the treacherous waters of WWII, Captain Jake Rogers leads his crew on a daring mission across Nazi-occupied Europe. Sequel to The Hunt for the Peggy C)
Vanessa Miller, The Filling Station, Thomas Nelson (inspirations novel delves into the sisterhood of two women and highlights the strength and resilience of Black women and the beauty of Black joy in the face of adversity)
Mark J. Mitchell, A Book of Lost Songs, Addison & Highsmith (a picaresque tale follows one man’ s journey and disillusionment in a world of brutality in the late 13th-century)
Mary Monroe, Bent But Not Broken, Dafina (Depression-era Alabama novel tells of a mistreated wife who finally finds the love she’s longed for—only to be plunged into deceit, betrayal, and murder)
Allison Montclair, An Excellent Thing in a Woman, Severn House (the owners of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau are determined to bring love matches to the residents of Post-WWII London, despite a murder investigation)
Amy Patricia Meade, Death Upon a Star, Severn House (introducing Hollywood script supervisor Evelyn Galloway, who’s drawn into a murder investigation after landing her dream job)
Erica Ruth Neubauer, Homicide in the Indian Hills, Kensington (American newlywed Jane Wunderly learns that tigers aren’t the only dangers lurking in 1920s India)
Valerie Nieman, Upon the Corner of the Moon, Regal House (immerses readers in a story about the real rulers who changed the face of Scotland)
Janette Oke, The Pharisee’s Wife, Tyndale House (about a young Jewish woman, plucked from obscurity and thrust on perilous journey, only to witness the world’s most life-changing story)
Lew Paper, Legacy of Lies, Level Best (thriller focusing on a former FBI Special Agent-turned-private investigator, who is asked by a Mafia contact to follow Jimmy Hoffa in the weeks before his abduction)
Tracie Peterson, A Constant Love, Bethany House (historical romance of healing and spiritual depth set during the early years of the city of Cheyenne)
Natasha Pulley, The Hymn to Dionysus, Bloomsbury (reimagining of the story of Dionysus, Greek God of ecstasy and madness, revelry and ruin)
Anthony Quinn, The Mouthless Dead, Abacus (crime novel based on the Wallace Murder, a national cause célèbre of the 1930s and still unsolved)
Marcie R. Rendon, Broken Fields, Soho Crime (Cash Blackbear, a young Ojibwe woman, is back on the case after two men are found dead on a rural farm in Minnesota in 1970s)
Helena Rho, Stone Angels, Grand Central (novel set in the Pacific theater, focusing on the Korean diaspora and Japanese occupation during WWII)
Vanessa Riley, A Wager at Midnight, Zebra (romance in which a duke has made a wager to find husbands for the love-of-his-life’s two sisters, in order to have a second chance with her)
Jane Rosenthal, The Serpent Bearer, She Writes (part World War II spy thriller, part romance, and part tale of buried family secrets)
Karen Russell, The Antidote, Knopf (dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town)
Simon Scarrow, A Death in Berlin, Headline (next installment of the Inspector Schenke WWII espionage thriller series)
Isabelle Schuler, The House of Barbary, Raven Books (story walks the thin line between retribution and revenge, and the choices we must make when confronted by evil)
Caroline Scott, Greenfields, S&S UK (when Robert Bardsley arrives at Greenfields in spring, 1933, it is home to a collective of writers, artists, and musicians, until the cracks start to show)
Joanna Shupe, The Gilded Heiress, Avon (story full of secrets and betrayal, set among the streets of New York City’s Gilded Age)
Liz Tolsma, When the Sky Burned, Barbour (novel taking place in the true-life setting of the deadly fire of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, October 8, 1871)
Johanna van Veen, Blood on Her Tongue, Poisoned Pen Press (gothic horror set in the Netherlands, 1887 when one of two sisters goes temporarily insane)
Bridget Walsh, The Spirit Guide, Gallic (1879, London; scriptwriter Minnie Ward and ex-police officer Albert Easterbrook are drawn into a world of celebrities, ghosts and questionable cults)
Amy Weldon, Creature, Sea Crow Press (braids Mary Shelley’s life journey with that of her most famous character –Victor Frankenstein’s half-human Creature)
Lauren Willig, The Girl from Greenwich Street, William Morrow (based on the true story of a famous trial, as Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr investigate the shocking murder of a young woman)
April 2025
Ingeborg Bachmann, trans. Tess Lewis, The Honditsch Cross, New Directions (new translation of novella set during the final days of the Napoleonic occupation of Austria in 1813)
David Baldacci, Strangers in Time, Grand Central (novel set in London in 1944, about a bereaved book shop owner and two teenagers scarred by the second world war)
Sian Ann Bessey, A Time Traveler’s Masquerade, Shadow Mountain (romance blossoms when Isla Crawford steps into McQuivey’s Costume Shop in London and is swept back in time to 1605)
Laurent Binet, trans. Sam Taylor, Perspective(s), Farrar, Straus & Giroux (murder mystery set in Renaissance Florence, 1557)
Colleen Cambridge, A Fashionably French Murder, Kensington (1950; American expat Tabitha Knight has found a new life in postwar Paris, along with a delightful friend in aspiring chef Julia Child)
Jennifer Chiaverini, The World’s Fair Quilt, William Morrow (celebration of quilting, family, community, and history, featuring a quilt entered in the Sears National Quilt Contest for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair)
Manda Collins, A Wallflower’s Guide to Viscounts and Vice, Grand Central (a wallflower and a rake join together to solve a mystery in this historical rom-com)
Sandra Dallas, Tough Luck, St. Martin’s (in this homage to True Grit, a young woman makes a perilous journey west in 1863 in search of her gold-mining father)
Sarah Damoff, The Bright Years, Simon & Schuster (told from three points of view over four generations, story tells a tender, true-to-life novel that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy)
Martina Devlin, Charlotte, The Lilliput Press (a fictional tale of Charlotte Brontë and a story about fiction– who creates it, who lives it, who owns it)
Claire Deya, trans. Adriana Hunter, Blast, Other Press (captures the beginning of a postwar period in which everyone must rebuild their lives and identities, and overcome the obsessions that prevent them from healing)
Jim Eldridge, Murder at St Paul’s Cathedral, Allison & Busby (Coburg and Lampson work to solve a very puzzling case in May 1941)
Joan Fernandez, Saving Vincent, She Writes (an early twentieth century novel about Jo van Gogh who battled the male-dominated art elite in her fifteen-year crusade to save her genius brother-in-law Vincent from obscurity)
Kelsie Sheridan Gonzalez, The Ones Time Forgot, Alcove Press (Irish mythology collides with Gilded Age New York in this debut enemies-to-lovers historical romantasy set in Manhattan, 1870)
Rosie Goodwin, Our Dear Daisy, Zaffre (saga set in Nuneaton, 1880)
Genevieve Graham, On Isabella Street, Simon & Schuster (novel set in Toronto and Vietnam during the turbulent sixties about two women caught up in powerful social movements)
Beth Hahn, The City Beneath Her, Regal House (delivers a tale of suspense in a feminist noir thriller)
Jo Harkin, The Pretender, Knopf/Bloomsbury (the true story of the little-known Lambert Simnel, a figurehead of the 1487 Yorkist rebellion who ended up working as a spy in the court of King Henry VII)
Olivia Hawker, The Stars and Their Light, Lake Union (1947 in Roswell, New Mexico, the mystery of the unknown grips a sheltered novitiate in a novel about fate, agency, and faith)
Elise Hooper, The Library of Lost Dollhouses, William Morrow (about a young librarian who discovers historic dollhouses and embarks on a journey to uncover their hidden secrets in an interwoven narrative set during the early- to mid-twentieth century)
Rebecca Ide, The Gentleman and his Vowsmith, S&S/Saga Press (a roguish young lord, his intended bride, and his former lover race to survive when an arranged marriage goes wrong in this historical fantasy debut)
Sabrina Jeffries, Hazardous to a Duke’s Heart, Kensington (new series in which a lord, detained in France during the Napoleonic war, returns home to find he’s inherited a dukedom)
Morgan Jerkins, Zeal, Harper (multi-generational novel that illuminates the legacy of slavery and the power of romantic love. Dual timeline novel set in 1865 and 2019)
Venessa Vida Kelley, When the Tides Held the Moon, Erewhon (blend of historical fantasy and romance at the turn of the 20th century; a fairytale of queer identity and found family)
Jess Kidd, Murder at Gulls Nest, Atria (1954; first in a cozy mystery series about a former nun who searches for answers in a small seaside town after her pen pal mysteriously disappears)
Karen Lynne Klink, War and Preservation, She Writes (journey through sacrifice, resilience, and love in the heart of the Civil War in Book 2 of The Texian Trilogy)
Natasha Lester, The Mademoiselle Alliance, Dell (brings to life the true story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, who led one of the largest and most effective resistance networks in France during World War II)
Jessica Levine, Three Cousins, She Writes (set during the second wave of feminism and the sexual revolution, this coming-of-age novel is about female friendship in the 1970s)
Olesya Lyuzna, Glitter in the Dark, Mysterious Press (the search for a kidnapped singer in Prohibition-era New York leads an intrepid reporter from Harlem speakeasies to the dazzling world of the theater)
Lindz McLeod, The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet, Carina Adores (sapphic romance between Charlotte Lucas and Mary Bennet, after the death of Mr. Collins)
Joanna Miller, The Eights, Putnam/Fig Tree (follows the unlikely friendship of four women in the first female class at Oxford, and their coming of age in a world forever changed by World War I)
Laura Morelli, The Keeper of Lost Art, William Morrow (during World War II, a girl makes a connection with a boy sheltering in her family’s Tuscan villa, where the treasures of the Uffizi Galleries are hidden)
Boyd Morrison, Beth Morrison, The White Fortress, Aries (third historical adventure in the Tales of the Lawless Land series, set in 1350s Europe)
John Shen Yen Nee, S. J. Rozan, The Railway Conspiracy, Soho Crime (Judge Dee and Lao She must use all their powers of deduction to take down a sinister conspiracy between Imperial Russia, Japan, and China in 1920s London)
Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Happy Land, Berkley (multi-generational novel about the stories that shape us and the courage it takes to dream)
Joanna Davidson Politano, The Curious Inheritance of Blakely House, Revell (in 1901, clockmaker Sydney Forrester inherits the estate of a mysterious industrialist, the estranged uncle she never met)
Pamela Reitman, Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life, Sibylline Press (novel inspired by the life and work of a young German-Jewish art student at The Berlin Fine Arts Academy during Hitler’s rise to power)
Rachel Rueckert, The Determined, Kensington (set during the Golden Age of Pirates, based on the real experiences of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who dared to subvert the rules and roles assigned to women of their time)
Bailey Seybolt, Coram House, Atria (haunting novel about a crime writer who risks everything as she investigates the mystery of two deaths, decades apart, at a crumbling Vermont orphanage)
April J. Skelly, A Lethal Engagement, Crooked Lane (1890; an airship bound for London is thrown off course by a murder on the first night of its transatlantic voyage in this locked-room historical mystery debut)
Lauraine Snelling, Kiersti Giron, Land of Dreams, Bethany House (Norwegian immigrant Amalia Gunderson and her ward, Ruth Forsberg, arrive in Iowa to claim the boarding house Ruth has inherited)
Burhan Sönmez, trans. Sami Hêzil, Lovers of Franz K., Other Press (tribute to Kafka in a key period of history in the 1960s, when the Berlin Wall divided Europe, and women were fighting for freedom)
Shaina Steinberg, An Unquiet Peace, Kensington (novel following Paper Moon takes place in October 1948 around the Berlin Airlift)
Emily Sullivan, A Death on Corfu, Kensington (murder mystery at the turn of the 20th century, where widow Minnie Harper struggles to find her place in a swiftly changing world)
Nadia Terranova, trans. Ann Goldstein, The Night Trembles, Seven Stories (two stories converge in the aftermath of the devastating 1908 earthquake in Sicily and Calabria)
Will Thomas, Season of Death, Minotaur (in late Victorian England, private enquiry agents Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn find themselves in the middle of the chaos when forces align to take over London’s criminal underworld)
Milo Todd, The Lilac People, Counterpoint (story about a trans man who must relinquish the freedoms of prewar Berlin to survive first the Nazis then the Allies)
Jennifer Uhlarik, Love and Order, Barbour (separated as children adopted out to different families, the Braddock siblings have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice)
Nghi Vo, Don’t Sleep With the Dead, Tordotcom (a reinvention of The Great Gatsby with Nick Carraway, on the eve of WWII)
Shirley Russak Wachtel, The Baker of Lost Memories, Little A (novel spanning decades about the broken bonds of family, memories of war, and redemption and hope)
Ursula Werner, Magda Revealed, She Writes (fictionalized account of Jesus’ life and ministry—told from the perspective of disciple Mary Magdalene)
Rita Woods, The Edge of Yesterday, Forge (a principal dancer with a renowned Harlem company stumbles through a vortex, a portal through time that transports her back 100 years to 1925 Detroit)
Jaime Jo Wright, Tempest at Annabel’s Lighthouse, Bethany House (dual timeline novel in which Beth washes ashore on Lake Superior with no memory, and is mistaken for the ghost of a local fisherman’s late wife)
May 2025
Kelley Armstrong, Death at a Highland Wedding, Minotaur (fourth installment of the Rip Through Time series with time-traveler Detective Mallory Atkinson)
Barbara Tifft Blakey, The Angel of Second Street, Barbour (inspirational romance set in Eureka, California, 1885)
Lila Cain, The Blackbirds of St Giles, Dafina (1782 London; Daniel & his sister Pearl escape a sugar plantation and arrive in London where they are callously tricked into the underworld labyrinth of the rookeries of St Giles)
Joy Callaway, The Star of Camp Greene, Harper Muse (1918; WWI romance about a Broadway star forced to stay at Charlotte, NC’s Camp Greene for the duration of the war, after she overhears secret information. Inspired by the woman who initiated the USO)
Jody Cooksley, The Surgeon’s House, Allison & Busby (sequel to The Small Museum, Maddie’s sister, Rebecca, is forced to question the stability of the life she has created)
Katherine Scott Crawford, The Miniaturist’s Assistant, Regal House (an art conservator discovers a familiar face in a 200-year-old miniature portrait and must reconcile her past with that of the men she loves across two different lifetimes)
David Demchuk, Corinne Leigh Clark, The Butcher’s Daughter, Hell’s Hundred (literary thriller that draws from historical sources and shines new light on Mrs. Lovett, the woman behind the counter of the most disreputable pie shop ever known)
David Donachie, Tested by Fate, McBooks (the toll of war, both physical and emotional, becomes a poignant part of Nelson’s journey as he battles not only his enemies but also his own inner demons)
Frederic S. Durbin, The Country Under Heaven, Melville House (1880s, post Civil War; western about a former Civil War soldier following enigmatic visions that started coming to him after he survived one of the war’s bloodiest battles)
Patricia Falvey, The Famine Orphans, Kensington (based on the little-known story of the thousands of young women sent from Irish workhouses to Australia after the Famine)
Amanda Flower, Not They Who Soar, Kensington (while Wilbur and Orville Wright’s flying machine has taken off and made history, their equally brilliant sister, Katharine, is on the ground, solving murders)
Jack Ford, Beyond This Place of Wrath and Tears, Kensington (dual timeline novel of Lee Carson, the heroic yet elusive female journalist who defied convention and danger to report from the front lines of WWII)
Kate Foster, The Mourning Necklace, Mantle UK (centres on a woman from 18th-century Edinburgh who survived her own execution)
J. C. Harvey, The Wanton Road, Allen & Unwin (final instalment in the Jack Fiskardo trilogy sees Jack return to a London filled with bitter rivalries and deadly secrets)
Jenny Holiday, Manic Pixie Dream Earl, Kensington (Regency romance follow up to Earl’s Trip, focusing on the goth, Effie)
Christopher Huang, A Pretender’s Murder, Inkshares (second Eric Peterkin mystery set in 1920s aftermath of the Great War)
Andrey Kurkov, trans. Boris Dralyuk, The Stolen Heart, HarperVia (second installment of the Kyiv Mysteries after The Silver Bone)
Lola Jaye, The Manual for Good Wives, Macmillan UK (dual narrative historical novel about love, generational trauma, second chances and hope)
Natalie Jenner, Austen at Sea, St. Martin’s (1865; two pairs of siblings, devotees of Jane Austen, find their lives transformed by a visit to England to Francis Austen, keeper of her memories)
Christina Koning, Murder in Oxford, Allison & Busby (a cat and mouse murder game in Oxford, 1942)
John Lawton, Curse God and Die, Grove (1950; spy thriller explores swapped identities in the aftermath of the Holocaust)
Nev March, The Silversmith’s Puzzle, Minotaur (Captain Jim Agnihotri and Lady Diana Framji return to India as they investigate a murder amidst colonial Bombay’s complex hierarchy)
Cat Scully, Below the Grand Hotel, CLASH books (1920s gothic horror in which a wannabe Ziegfeld girl is granted her wish to be famous)
Natasha Solomons, Cleopatra, Manilla Press (told from the perspectives of Cleopatra and Caesar’s mistress Servilia, novel draws out the real woman behind the great legend)
Annabelle Thorpe, The Moonlit Piazza, Aria (WWII; as the Nazis tighten their grip on power, family-run Casa Maria is now under Nazi control, to the fury of matriarch Elena Capaldi)
Anneka R. Walker, The Rules of Matrimony, Shadow Mountain (an unexpected marriage and a love worth fighting for in London, England, 1823)
Felicity York, The Quiet Wife, HarperNorth (1867; based on a true story; tale of a woman reinventing herself, while embarking on a forbidden love affair with American artist James Whistler)
June 2025
Jerry Borrowman, Flames of Anarchy, Shadow Mountain (in 1908 America, a storm of anarchy threatens the nation, leading to a tale of betrayal, fear, and the birth of the FBI)
Franck Bouysse, trans. Lara Vergnaud, Clay, Other Press (tensions boil over in a rural mountain community whose able-bodied men have left to fight in World War I)
Dennard Dayle, How to Dodge a Cannonball, Henry Holt (caricature of the American Civil War, told through the story of a white teenager who joins an all-Black regiment of soldiers)
Paul Doherty, Prince of Murders, Headline (Hugh Corbett book 25 – full description forthcoming)
Kelli Estes, Smoke on the Wind, Lake Union (present day and 1801; in the Scottish Highlands, two devoted mothers separated by centuries discover a haunting connection)
Hester Fox, A Magic Deep and Drowning, Graydon House (a gender-flipped historical fantasy retelling of The Little Mermaid set in Holland, 1650)
Virginia Heath, Look Before You Leap, St. Martin’s Griffin (second humorous novel in the Miss Pretence’s Protégées Regency romp of a series)
Madeline Hunter, The Lady Takes on London, Zebra (a headstrong heiress and an arrogant barrister debate the laws of love and reputation)
H. G. Parry, A Far Better Thing, Tor (shuttling between London and Paris during the Reign of Terror, generations of violence-begetting-violence lead Sidney Carton, a servant to the faerie realm, to a heartbreaking choice)
M. J. Robotham, Mrs Spy, Aria (a laugh-out-loud ride through 1960s London as Maggie Flynn, unexpected MI5 operative and single mum, unravels the intelligence agency’s secrets)
Katharine Schellman, Last Dance Before Dawn, Minotaur (fourth in the mysterious queer Nightingale mystery series set in 1920s New York)
Ashley Weaver, One Final Turn, Minotaur (final installment in the Electra McDonnell series brings safecracker Ellie on a mission across World War II-era Europe to Lisbon to rescue a group of escaped POWs)
July 2025
Lindsey Davis, There Will Be Bodies, Minotaur (a decade after the destructive eruption, Flavia Albia finds herself investigating family secrets and possible crimes buried in the ash of Mount Vesuvius)
Eleni Kyriacou, A Beautiful Way to Die, Aries (1950s Hollywood and London; historical crime novel explores the dark underbelly of the movie industry and the lengths people will go to protect their reputations)
Cathy Pegau, A Murderous Business, Minotaur (mystery set in turn-of-the-20th-century NY with two queer business women as sleuths)
Eliza Morton, Betsy’s War, Pan (third part of the Liverpool Orphans Trilogy set at the outbreak of WWII)
Karen Swan, The Hidden Heart, Macmillan (conclusion to the historical series based upon the dramatic evacuation of the Scottish island St Kilda in the summer of 1930)
August 2025
Rebecca Anderson, Whispers of Shadowbrook House, Shadow Mountain (1880; governess Pearl Ellicott and heir Oliver Waverly unravel a haunting mystery while confronting their growing forbidden love)
D. V. Bishop, Carnival of Lies, Macmillan UK (historical thriller set against the backdrop of the Medici dynasty in 1530s Renaissance Italy)
Genevieve Cogman, Damned, Tor UK (in England, The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel discover earth-shattering secrets that could change their world forever in final instalment of Scarlet Revolution trilogy)
Audrey Minutolo-Le, Gray Ledges, Down East Books (inspired by true events about a coastal Maine village in the 1930s, novel explores the lives of two women who operate competing hotels in an idyllic summer resort)
Xenobe Purvis, The Hounding, Henry Holt (debut about five sisters in a small village in 18th century England whose neighbors are convinced they’re turning into dogs)
Eden Royce, Psychopomp & Circumstance, Tordotcom (a Southern Gothic historical fantasy story of a contentious funeral)
Douglas Skelton, Ship of Thieves, Canelo (next in Company of Rogues series)
Sarah Stewart Taylor, Hunter’s Heart Ridge, Minotaur (1965; Detective Frank Warren and his formerly CIA-connected neighbor Alice Bellows return to investigate the death of a federal judge. Sequel to Agony Hill)
September 2025
Stephanie Cowell, The Man in the Stone Cottage, Regal House (follows Charlotte Bronte’s early writing and Emily’s secret romance with a local shepherd)
Charles Finch, The Hidden City, Minotaur (aristocratic sleuth Charles Lenox makes a triumphant return to London from his travels to America, to investigate a mystery hidden in the architecture of the city itself)
Dan Jones, Lion Hearts, Aries (third installment in the Essex Dogs series)
October 2025
November 2025
December 2025
