This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend. Read the full disclosure here.
We each have our own preferred genres of choice. Kate loves horrors and thrillers, really anything that will keep her up at night! And Serena enjoys escaping through hidden doors into realms of magic and adventure. We also read mysteries, historical fiction, graphic novels, etc. etc. And that’s not even counting the multitude of sub-genres contained within each greater genre. In this series, one of us will present a list of our favorites from within a given sub-genre of one of our greater preferred genres.
As I was going back through my previous “Diving Into Sub-genres” posts, it occurred to me that I hadn’t yet posted any Thriller lists. And when I tried to unpack that reality, I kind of realized that I felt a bit daunted trying to disentangle the ins and outs of the sub-genres of thrillers because I tend to focus so much on very specific sub-genres without branching out too much. You are far more likely to find me deep into psychological thrillers, but spy thrillers? Legal thrillers? Military thrillers? Religious thrillers? Not so much! But I did realize that I have gone past psychological thrillers and have also really enjoyed historical thrillers. Which isn’t REALLY surprising because I do love historical fiction! Therefore it’s no shock that I love a historical story with thriller elements.
Historical thrillers are pretty straightforward, definition wise. They are thrillers (of any type really) that take place in a historical setting. Usually the time and place is imperative to the plot and the circumstances, and the action within has to exist within that vacuum (though, admittedly, a couple of my choices are going to be a little loosey goosey with that concept). This list is a collection of some that I’ve really enjoyed, as well as what I want to be a varied swath of different time periods and sometimes cultures that serve as a backdrop to the thrillers at hand.
Book: “11/22/63” by Stephen King
Already with the loosey goosey titles, as this Stephen King story is also very much a Sci-Fi tale with the time travel elements. But the overall meat of the story is very much a historical thriller, as a man from the early 21st Century is sent back to the middle of the 20th to try and stop the Kennedy Assassination. Jake Epping is a high school teacher who stumbles upon the opportunity to go back in time to prevent President Kennedy from being assassinated. Starting years before the murder, Jake plants himself as a regular man from the time, trying to keep tabs on Lee Harvey Oswald and trying to find a way to stop the tragedy, and perhaps others as well. But while he is there, he meets soft spoken and kind school teacher Sadie, and falls in love with her, revealing much of his heart… but also putting his original mission in danger. Stephen King creates a highly suspenseful thriller involving secrets, espionage, love, and the hope for a better reality, while examining not only the culture of 1950s and 1960s America, but also how time travel could potentially interact with this world.
Book: “Velvet Was the Night” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
We have sang the praises of Silvia Moreno-Garcia on this blog many times, and we have reviewed nearly all of her works, including “Velvet is the Night”. I put this one on the list because of the way that Moreno-Garcia explores the corruption, dangers, and shades of idealism of 1970s Mexico City. Maite is a receptionist who has romanticized ideas of love thanks to her love of pulp novels. When she finds herself entangled in the case of a missing acquaintance named Leonora, she is suddenly swept up in a world of gangsters, missing activists, and a petty criminal named Elvis who loves rock and roll and is assigned to seek Maite out before she finds out too much about Leonora. Moreno-Garcia once again brings out her talent for complex characters and well conceived settings, with the suspense running high as Maite and Elvis set on a crash course for danger.
Book: “Mademoiselle Revolution” by Zoe Sivak
The French Revolution has always had a certain allure about it, with rolling heads and promises of societal upheaval, ultimately leading to a brutal Empire led by Napoleon Bonaparte. But what I love about Zoe Sivak’s “Mademoiselle Revolution” is that she tells the story from the eyes of a formally upper class Black woman from Haiti who escaped the Haitian revolution only to find herself in the midst of Robespierre’s. Sylvie, the biracial daughter of a white plantation owner, escapes to Paris after most of her family is killed during the Haitian Revolution. Feeling guilty for her complacency in her former home’s racist structures, she is immediately taken with charismatic Robespierre, who speaks of revolution in France. At first Sylvie is swept up in the idealism. But then things start to spiral out of control. I love Sylvie as a character and how she fits into actual historical events and social circles, and I love how Sivak frames it all through the eyes of a Black woman.
Book: “From Hell” by Alan Moore
I know that he’s a bit of a controversial figure in comics and graphic novels, but I really love Alan Moore. I find so many of his works absolutely phenomenal, but one that really stands out for me is “From Hell”, his graphic novel about the Jack the Ripper Whitechapel Murders and the failed investigation that came after (perhaps because of a royal conspiracy). While the investigation is the main plot, Moore takes it to interesting heights by making the focus not on who Jack the Ripper was (his identity in this is clear almost from the start), but on how a culture that is driven by violence, corruption, and misogyny, all to keep a Royal Family scandal under wraps, is just as complicit in the deaths as the murderer himself. I love how dark and enigmatic this book is, and how it gathers so much from years and years of Ripperology (yes that’s a thing) to create a narrative that indicts Victorian England as a whole.
Book: “The Red Palace” by June Hur
Now we switch things up a whole lot, and travel to 17th Century Korea, seeking out a murder mystery involving a palace nurse, an intrepid police inspector, and a potentially violent prince. And to make it all the more interesting, June Hur’s “The Red Palae” is partially inspired by a true story from this time period in Korea (back then known as Joseon). Hyeon is an illegitimate teenage girl, and has few options because of this, so when she has the opportunity to become a palace nurse she takes it. But then her mentor is accused of murdering four women in one night, she has to team up with police inspector Eojin, who is also determined to find the real killer. The problem? Their investigations point towards the crown prince himself as the culprit. This is a setting I haven’t seen as much in historical thrillers, and I really love how June Hur captures the time and the people to create a riveting story of political intrigue and danger.
Book: “The Lost Apothecary” by Sarah Penner
And we have our other loosey goosey title with Sarah Penner’s “The Lost Apothecary”, as it has dual timelines between the present day and the 18th century in Londan, England. In the present, Caroline is visiting London on what should have been an anniversary trip, but became a solo vacation when she discovered her husband was cheating on her. While exploring the city she stumbles upon a mysterious vial, her interest in researching its origins is piqued. Little does she know at first that it’s connected to a string of murders in the late 1700s, as a woman named Nella had a back alleys apothecary where she would sell herbs, remedies…. as well as poisons to help women be rid of violent men whom they couldn’t escape otherwise. I loved the dual timelines of this story as Caroline searches for answers, and as Nella hopes to stay hidden, and how it draws parallels between life back then and life now.
What are some of your favorite historical thrillers? Let us know in the comments!
The Library Ladies 