Historical Mystery Novels

Most of us need a bit of escapism from time to time. For me, reading a historical mystery is one of the most satisfying ways to let the imagination roam. Not only do details of daily life provide a better understanding of the time and place in which the novel is set, but the mystery element is absorbing, too.

For this list I’ve picked a wide range of mystery novels set in the past, from the first book in a fun series featuring the laid-back ‘informer’ Marcus Didius Falco — a reluctant imperial agent who investigates crimes — to a locked-room mystery in early 20th century Vienna, an imperial capital buzzing with cultural, scientific and political change.

The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis

This is a really fun and lively historical mystery novel. The detective character is similar in some ways to a 20th-century century wise-cracking, streetwise noir-style private eye, but the setting is 1st century Rome. Unlike his 20th-century counterparts, detective Marcus Didius Falco has an extended family that he can’t ignore, and those relationships bring a humorous dimension to the story.

When Falco travels to Britannia to investigate the link between the murder of his client and a political plot, he meets Helena Justina. They promptly make bad impressions on each other, and Falco knows she really doesn’t like him when she sets him up as a slave to do some sleuthing in a silver mine — a very dangerous undercover role to play. In any case, as a love interest Helena Justina is clearly way out of his league, isn’t she?

The historical detail is very well researched and the author has not fallen into the trap of trying to give characters contemporary sensibilities. If you want to spend more time with these rather likeable characters, here is some good news: there are twenty books in the Marcus Didius Falco series.

Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan

We’re in Bombay on New Year’s Eve 1949. As newly independent India celebrates the start of the new decade, Inspector Persis Wadia is consigned to the midnight shift in the basement of Malabar House. After six months on the force, she remains India’s only female police detective and — facing both overt and more subtle prejudice — is part of the city’s unit of mistrusted and sidelined officers. When she gets the call about the murder of a prominent English diplomat at his own New Year’s party, she is determined to solve the case, never mind all the feathers she has to ruffle by offending the powerful guests.

This is a cracking mystery with an Agatha Christie-esque denouement, as well as an excellent historical novel set in the aftermath of partition. This book, which won the Crime Writers’ Association‘s historical dagger award, is the first in the Malabar House series.

Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee: An Authentic Eighteenth-Century Detective Novel

Although this historical mystery is a thoroughly Chinese work of detective fiction, it is a great read for people coming from the Western tradition. The detective uses his formidable powers of deduction based on logical thinking and psychological insight, and there are some suspenseful situations during the course of the investigation. Judge Dee himself goes about incognito, and readers also follow the actions of his lieutenants — reformed former highway robbers and conmen — who take part in the investigations in various ways.

Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee was written by an anonymous author in the 17th or 18th century but it is set many centuries earlier, in the Tang dynasty. The detective is based on Di Renjie (630-700), who is known to have solved many puzzling cases in real life. In this fictionalised novel, he is magistrate in a district of Shandong province, meaning that he was the detective, prosecutor and judge for the district town and surrounding areas. It was the norm to work on several cases simultaneously, and in this book he solves three different cases.

Robert van Gulik, the translator, went on to write 16 Judge Dee mysteries himself (published 1958-1968) which are also well worth reading.

The Unseeing by Anna Mazzola

The Unseeing is a fictional novel about truth and deception based on the historical murder of Hannah Brown in 1836, and the subsequent trial. The fact that the victim’s body parts turned up in different places in London ensured the case’s notoriety. Hannah Brown’s fiancé was swiftly convicted of the murder, and so was his lover Sarah Gale. At her trial, Gale said very little to counter the accusations against her, and this forms the mystery of the novel: what would keep someone silent, when speaking out could help her avoid a death sentence?

In the novel, a young lawyer is appointed to review the extent of Sarah Gale’s guilt, to find out what she is hiding and understand her motivation. The author’s background as a criminal justice solicitor and the careful location research combine to give the story an authentic feel. The world around the characters, particularly the notorious Newgate prison, is really well built.

Mortal Mischief (also published as A Death in Vienna) by Frank Tallis

We’re in 1902 Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When a medium is found shot in a room that has been locked from the inside, with no sign of a gun or even a bullet, it is tempting to treat it as a supernatural mystery. But Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt continues to look for a rational explanation, calling on his friend Dr Max Liebermann to help look for motives and build a profile of the murderer.

The author, himself a psychologist, has made Dr Liebermann a student of Freud and an early practitioner of psychoanalysis. Early 20th-century Vienna, at the forefront of cultural and scientific development, is a fabulous setting for our music-loving detective and doctor duo to use forensic science and psychology to help solve a seemingly impossible mystery. This is the first volume of The Liebermann Papers, which has been turned into a television series.