Here’s a hot take for all you audiobook lovers—historical mystery is basically the perfect genre.
Wait, don’t close that tab! Keep reading and hear us out on this one.
Historical mystery remains one of the most-read and loved genre for tons of reasons.
Personally, this blog writer loves combining the fun of solving a puzzle with the thrill of getting to snoop around fascinating time periods. It’s like being a detective and a time traveler rolled into one! Need more convincing? Historical mysteries are also…
- the perfect “research rabbit hole” – You may start the evening reading a relaxing “whodunit,” but you’ll quickly find yourself Googling “19th-century medicine” at 2 AM, learning about arsenic wallpaper and other questionable Victorian medical treatments (there were SEVERAL).
- an escape from modern trends & tech – After scrolling for hours on your smartphone & using voice commands to turn your lights on and off, it’s nice to have a break from modernity. This also means the sleuth has no modern tech to help them out either! They must use their wits, intuition, and good old-fashioned nosiness to get the answers they need.
- a digestible way to explore deeper social commentaries – Historical mysteries give the writer an opportunity to highlight injustices like racism, sexism, and ethnocentricity in an easier to digest package. For example, many historical mysteries feature protagonists who don’t quite fit their time period’s expectations (like female detectives in more male-dominated eras) which gives readers someone to root for while learning important lessons about our past.
- the ultimate “cozy read” for any occasion – Whether you’re heading to the beach, waiting in line at the DMV, or simply enjoying a lazy weekend, historical mysteries offer the perfect low stakes thrills for any reader.
Historical mysteries allow readers to dive into the past and discover that people have always been delightfully messy and complicated. Whether it’s turn-of-the-century ladies hiding scandalous secrets or medieval monks with questionable motives, these stories remind us that human nature hasn’t changed much.
This genre is also MADE for audiobooks. The narrator(s) of a historical mystery will always steal the show, using heavily researched accents and period-correct delivery to become the story itself. Imagine you’re on a walk, listening to a Regency-era mystery. The narrator introduces the story and sets the scene with a perfectly posh Georgian English accent. Suddenly, those indeed’s and quite so‘s have transformed your “hot girl walk” into a leisurely stroll down cobbled stones. You can almost hear the sound of carriages lumbering past as this new character leads you on a thrilling race to find the criminal!
Looking for an audio adventure like this? 👀
The Lady Librarian series continues with A Poetic Pox, and it’s everything you want in a historical mystery and then some.
It’s Christmas 1786 in England, and our heroine Tiffany Lathrop is trying to balance being a new mom with her job as librarian to a duchess. Out of the blue, her boss gets a mysterious letter from an old flame, the Marquess of Harwood, asking to see his biological son.
When they arrive, instead of a dying marquess, they’re greeted with a dead valet and an unconscious and a pox-marked lord. Now, Tiffany’s stuck trying to solve a murder while dealing with breastfeeding schedules and diaper duty!
This Dreamscape First release is only available on audiobook and the perfect example of how the right narrator (in this case, the award-winning Marni Penning) can make you feel like you’re right there in that drafty abbey, wondering if a killer lurks in the shadows.
Check out Books 1 & 2!
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| A Novel Disguise Narrated by Marni Penning |
A Novel Disguise Narrated by Marni Penning |
| Miss Tiffany Woodall didn’t murder her half-brother, but she did bury him in the back garden so she could keep her cottage. Now, the confirmed spinster has to pretend to be him while fulfilling his duties as the Duke of Beaufort’s librarian… and that’s only just the beginning. | Miss Tiffany Woodall thinks she’s through with masquerades and murders for good. Then, she stumbles upon the frozen dead body of former footman Mr. Bernard Coram. Her peaceful new life is upended as the justice of the peace declares her the primary suspect. |
Read on for more historical mysteries that will take your TBR back in time!
Last Dance Before Dawn
Book 4 in The Nightingale Mysteries series
Written by Katherine Schellman, narrated by Sara Young
Last Dance Before Dawn is the final book in the luscious, mysterious, and queer Nightingale mystery series by Katharine Schellman, set in 1920s New York.
Vivian Kelly has finally created a home and a family at the glamorous speakeasy known as The Nightingale, where no one cares who you are in the daytime. After all, in the underground world of 1920s New York City, everyone has a secret to keep, and they’re on the Nightingale’s dance floor to leave those secrets behind. But sometimes it takes more than a dance to escape your past.
When a stranger from Chicago shows up at The Nightingale looking to settle old scores, Vivian and the Nightingale’s owner, the mysterious and alluring Honor Huxley, send him packing. They soon discover, though, that the stranger was just a warning.
The Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge
Book 4 in the Saffron Everleigh Mysteries series
Written by Kate Khavari, narrated by Jodie Harris
Brilliant botanist Saffron Everleigh faces her hardest challenge yet when she returns to her childhood home in the fourth book in the charming Saffron Everleigh mystery series.
“A cleverly plotted puzzle” (Ashley Weaver) in the vein of Opium and Absinthe, this is perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Sujata Massey.
Saffron Everleigh returns to Ellington Manor after her grandfather suffers a heart attack. Back in her childhood home for the first time in years, Saffron faces tense family relationships made worse by the presence of the enigmatic Bill Wyatt, hired on as a doctor to the ailing Lord Easting. But the man is no doctor—in reality, he is a mysterious figure involved in the trafficking of dangerous government secrets, and his presence at Ellington can only mean trouble.
Check out the rest of the series! >
One Final Turn
Book 4 in the Electra McDonnell series
Written by Ashley Weaver, narrated by Alison Larkin
The fifth and final installment in the Electra McDonnell series brings safecracker Ellie on a mission across World War II-era Europe to Lisbon, Portugal to rescue a key group of escaped POWs.
Ellie McDonnell is about to embark on her most perilous mission yet: go to Lisbon, Portugal to save her beloved cousin Toby who has reportedly escaped from a German prisoner of war camp. Toby has been missing since the Battle of Dunkirk and Ellie had all but lost hope in ever seeing him again until Major Ramsey, the British military intelligence officer she had been working closely with over the past few months, shared the news he’d intercepted.
Check out the rest of the series! >
The Socialite’s Guide to Sleuthing and Secrets
Book 3 in the Pinnacle Hotel Mystery series
Written by S. K. Golden, narrated by Amara Jasper
Hotel heiress Evelyn Murphy is on the hunt for a cunning killer and a mysterious thief in the third Pinnacle Hotel mystery, perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Ashley Weaver.
New York, 1958. When Evelyn’s mail is delivered during a luncheon in the Gold Room, she’s surprised to find she has received a diamond tiara, which catches the attention of a costume jewelry sales team lunching nearby. Their leader, Lois Mitchel, is especially interested, but by the end of the lunch, Lois has choked and fallen into Evelyn’s lap—and by the end of the day, she’s dead.
Check out the rest of the series! >
The Hanging of Hettie Gale
Standalone
Written by Tess Burnett, narrated by Amara Jasper
A mothers love will never die. Neither will a mothers fury . . .
In eighteenth-century moorland, Hettie Gale is building a better life for herself and her son after family abuse and abandonment. But when she’s assaulted by men who lie about the encounter and accuse her of a heinous crime, Hettie is sentenced to death, ripping that new life away.
In the present, Alice returns to the moor when her cousin Fleur goes missing from the same village. While searching for Fleur, Alice becomes obsessed with Hettie’s legend and discovers journals revealing clues about decades of disappearances on the moor.
But what links Hettie to Fleur? And if Hettie is seeking justice from beyond the grave, can Alice do anything to bring her peace and save Fleur?
Check out other audiobooks by Tess Burnett! >
The Ghost of Kenai
Standalone
Written by Aurora Hardy, narrated by Nick Mondelli & Trevor Wilson
In 1796, the men at Fort “Kenay” (aka Russian Redoubt Saint Nicholas) are terrified.
A ghost, a woman in a tattered white dress, screams nightly along the banks of the Kenai River below the bluffs where the fort stands. Young Nicholas arrives with Captain Zaikov on his fur trading ship from Russia at the fort. Nicholas is sent by powerful people in Russia to accomplish a task, yet no one knows anything about him. An Orthodox priest is among the arrivals in search of a missing missionary. The fort is in disrepair and the men are terrified that the ghost is the legendary Rasulka from Russian folklore.
As Nicholas embarks on his quest, he befriends Acts Quickly, the son of the Denaina Chief from the nearby Native village. Acts Quickly soon leads Nicholas on a path to solving the mystery of the ghost while revealing the terrifying truth of what is happening at the fort.
Check out other audiobooks by Aurora Hardy! >
Death in Diamonds
Book 4 in the Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series
Written by S. J. Bennett, narrated by Samantha Bond
In 1796, the men at Fort “Kenay” (aka Russian Redoubt Saint Nicholas) are terrified.
A ghost, a woman in a tattered white dress, screams nightly along the banks of the Kenai River below the bluffs where the fort stands. Young Nicholas arrives with Captain Zaikov on his fur trading ship from Russia at the fort. Nicholas is sent by powerful people in Russia to accomplish a task, yet no one knows anything about him. An Orthodox priest is among the arrivals in search of a missing missionary. The fort is in disrepair and the men are terrified that the ghost is the legendary Rasulka from Russian folklore.
As Nicholas embarks on his quest, he befriends Acts Quickly, the son of the Denaina Chief from the nearby Native village. Acts Quickly soon leads Nicholas on a path to solving the mystery of the ghost while revealing the terrifying truth of what is happening at the fort.
Check out the rest of the series! >
Get some professional insight into how historical mysteries like these are written in our Q&A with Tonya Mitchell, author of The Arsenic Eater’s Wife!
