Historical mysteries truly allow amateur sleuths to shine. Without modern technology, forensic analysis or instantaneous communication to aid them, the historical detective must rely on their powers of deduction and observation to solve the crime.

Deanna Raybourn delivers wit and humor aplenty in her sixth installment of the Veronica Speedwell series, An Unexpected Peril. Fresh from her last case chasing Jack the Ripper, lepidopterist and amateur sleuth Veronica Speedwell is assisting with an exhibition on the small country of Alpenwald for a naturalist club in London—and enjoying some downtime with her partner turned lover, Stoker. 

Trouble is never far from Veronica, however. As the club assembles items donated by the late alpinist Alice Baker-Greene’s estate, Veronica uncovers evidence that Alice was murdered, rather than dying in a climbing accident. Princess Grisela of Alpenwald, who is visiting London and the exhibition, is less than enthusiastic about the discovery. Her small nation relies on tourism for its income, and the murder of a famous English mountain climber would cause a scandal. Veronica is undeterred, and as she and Stoker investigate Alice’s murder, they find themselves embroiled in a second mystery when Princess Grisela vanishes. 

Irreverent, funny and with a razor-sharp intelligence, Veronica is a delightful narrator and a keen detective. Her total disregard for the opinions of “good society” and her vicious wit in cutting down her detractors are a joy to read. As An Unexpected Peril unfolds, we see her relationship with her longtime partner, Stoker, develop as well. Fans of the series have waited five novels for their will-they-won’t-they attraction to resolve, and now that the pair are together, they must navigate the tiny irritations and frustrations that come with any new relationship. Veronica, as always, rushes headfirst into danger, while Stoker tries to maintain a tempering influence.

Best read in order, Raybourn’s Victorian-era series is never bleak, always funny and wonderfully fast-paced. An Unexpected Peril has the perfect blend of action, romance and mystery. 

The Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis is the complete opposite in terms of atmosphere. The second Brontë Sisters mystery is set in bleak, frozen West Yorkshire and begins when a neighbor of the Brontës, the eccentric Clifton Bradshaw, finds the skeleton of a young child interred in a fireplace in his late wife’s rooms. 

Rumor has it that Clifton went mad after his wife’s death, selling his soul to the devil and shutting off her rooms completely. The discovery of the bones 13 years later certainly implies that something sinister occurred before her death, and the Brontë sisters are determined to identify the child and how it came to be hidden in the fireplace.

Ellis carefully weaves biographical details into her mystery, and readers familiar with the Brontës’ story will see the beginning of Branwell Brontë’s decline as well as the first glimpses of Charlotte’s relationship with Arthur Bell Nicholls. Ellis portrays Charlotte as a fierce and dynamic figure, Emily as a dreamer and recluse and Anne as the mediator between them. Isolated in their Yorkshire village, these three brilliant sisters yearn for intellectual stimulation, and solving the mystery of the bones is too intriguing for them to resist. Unfortunately, not everyone appreciates their meddling. 

Easily read as a standalone, The Diabolical Bones tackles subjects as bleak as the frigid February moors where it is set, from the cruelties of child labor in Victorian England to the limitations of women at the time, as the sisters often have to drag their begrudging brother with them on their investigations. Fans of gothic mysteries will find this novel wonderfully creepy and suspenseful, even if they are unfamiliar with the work or lives of the Brontë sisters. 

With espionage, secret love affairs and hidden treasure, The Dark Heart of Florence by Tasha Alexander offers a mystery set in Florence, Italy in both 1903 and 1480. Jumping in with the 15th novel in the Lady Emily mystery series may seem intimidating, but Alexander provides enough context for characters and events referenced from previous books in the series that very little is lost for newcomers. 

When Lady Emily Hargreaves’ husband, Colin, is summoned to Florence, she knows it’s on secret business. Tensions are rising in Europe, and while Colin cannot admit it, Emily knows he is a spy for England. When a man is killed in their palazzo, Emily and her best friend, Cécile, launch a parallel investigation, determined not to sit by on the sidelines as danger surrounds them.

Interspersed are chapters set in the 15th century, where a young woman named Mina struggles to align with the gender roles traditionally assigned to her while the wonder of the Renaissance surrounds her. Mina enters into a forbidden affair with a young priest that will change the course of her life and entangle her in the fanatical puritan campaign of Girolamo Savonarola. 

Mina’s actions directly impact the murder that Emily and Cecile are investigating in 1903, which is intensified by the increasingly tenuous political situation and the frustration Emily feels at being left in the dark as to her husband’s intrigues. The Florentine setting, both in the Renaissance and early Edwardian eras, is explored in rich detail, allowing the reader to travel vicariously through Mina’s and Emily’s eyes.

With gothic chills, laugh-out-loud humor and international intrigue, these three mysteries whisk the reader off to the past and ensnare them with carefully crafted plots and plenty of suspense.

Two intense mysteries feature terrifying serial killers—and the cunning detectives who catch them.

Authors Eva García Sáenz and C.S. Harris balance shocking violence with the slow and steady thrill of watching a detective meticulously unravel a case.

Sáenz’s chillingly graphic The Water Rituals follows Spanish inspector Unai López de Ayala—better known by his nickname, Kraken—on the trail of a killer who has been drowning pregnant women in ways that mimic a 1,000-year-old ritual. 

Kraken, a behavioral profiler, is especially taken aback when he learns that the first victim is his former girlfriend, graphic novelist Ana Belén Liaño. Her body is found hanging upside down by her ankles, her head submerged in a Celtic cauldron of water. 

Unable to speak because of a traumatic brain injury (from his first adventure, The Silence of the White City), Kraken can only communicate with his fellow detectives by writing his thoughts on scraps of paper. The trauma of Ana’s death sparks a series of flashbacks as he recalls their relationship, and the memories prompt him to seek clues to her death as he tries to regain the ability to speak. News that Kraken’s boss, Deputy Superintendent Alba Díaz de Salvatierra, may be pregnant with his child ups the tension and the stakes as his pursuit of the killer continues.

Sáenz, who began her career by self-publishing before becoming an award-winning short story writer, maintains a tight point of view from Kraken’s perspective, creating a claustrophobic, psychologically intense experience for readers en route to a dramatic finale.

Harris’ novel What the Devil Knows is equally brutal. The novel opens in 1814 London, three years after the real-life Ratcliffe Highway murders and decades before the more notorious Jack the Ripper slayings. The lead magistrate in the Ratcliffe Highway case, Sir Edwin Pym, has been killed in the same manner as the Ratcliffe killer’s victims.

Lead investigator Sebastian St. Cyr immediately voices his concern to fellow investigators: “You assume this murderer has a logical reason for what he does. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s more likely whoever did this simply enjoys killing.” So begins the methodical, purposeful pursuit of a killer who has no qualms about what he does, whether he is the actual Ratcliffe Highway killer or, as Sebastian muses, a copycat “deliberately modeling his acts on the sensational murders of the past.”

What the Devil Knows is Harris’ 16th novel featuring Sebastian, but it is easily accessible to anyone new to the series. While a subplot deals with Sebastian’s family lineage, the novel mostly follows a procedural course, building suspense and dread as Sebastian questions the victim’s acquaintances and possible enemies. Harris guides us through London’s streets with detail and dialects that firmly establish the novel’s immersive historical setting. In her afterword, Harris recounts which elements of the novel she drew from actual depositions, testimonies and newspaper reports.

Whether your passion lies with a detective’s meticulous pursuit of evidence or you thrill to the hunt for a killer, these books deliver on both accounts.

A cab driver, a Regency widow and the owner of a milkshake emporium find their lives disrupted by murder most foul in this month’s cozy column.

Death of an Irish Mummy

Expat Megan Malone is back behind the wheel at Leprechaun Limos, this time driving a fellow Texan, Cherise, who thinks she’s heir to an ancient Irish earldom. Cherise is later found dead, just as her three squabbling daughters arrive in Dublin from the States to support their mother’s quest. Megan must find out what happened, partly because she was involved from the start, but also, in a truly hilarious touch, because her boss is beginning to think she’s cursed, given that dead bodies keep popping up around her, Megan must find out what happened. Catie Murphy’s Death of an Irish Mummy is a bright new installment in a consistently delightful series. Megan’s a staunch ally to her limo service co-workers, and when times are tough, it’s nice to see how people have her back in return. She’s slyly conscious of the fact that  drivers are viewed as “the help,” members of the invisible servant class with whom people will sometimes speak too freely, and she uses this to her advantage, accumulating useful information. Murphy balances grief and family secrets with a hunt for buried treasure, keeping things realistic even as the story flirts with the fantastical.

Pint of No Return

Trinidad Jones is determined to make a fresh start after getting divorced, and to avoid her ex-husband Gabe’s two other ex-wives and his protective sister. Fortunately, she received a storefront in rural Oregon in the breakup, and she moves in with plans to turn it into a homemade ice cream and milkshake emporium. When she finds a neighboring business owner dead and one of Gabe’s exes is charged with the crime, Trinidad must change her priorities and see justice done. Dana Mentink’s series starter, Pint of No Return, takes place in a neighborhood common to cozies: a nice town full of good people, if you don’t count all the lying, theft and murder. Noodles, Trinidad’s service-dog dropout who knows he should help but does so in adorably wrong ways, is likely to become a fan favorite.

Silence in the Library

Katharine Schellman’s Silence in the Library is a welcome return to the Regency world of recently widowed Lily Adler. She finds herself saddled with her ailing father as an unexpected houseguest, and he’s in such a foul temper that Lily must escape by visiting Lady Wyatt, who has married Sir Charles, an old family friend. It’s a shock when Sir Charles is found dead, and Bow Street constable Simon Page thinks the fall that caused his death was staged to appear like an accident. Soon enough, Simon and Lily are working in tandem to find the truth. The mystery is complicated by Arthur, one of Sir Charles’ sons, who is autistic. His wealth and privilege have allowed him to escape being institutionalized, but his family has kept him hidden from public view and are quick to blame him in the search for the killer. A touching subplot about Lily tentatively coming out of mourning to embark on a newly independent life—and her father’s subsequent fury at this change—illustrates the tightrope that women had to walk to gain even the smallest bit of freedom. Schellman’s meticulous research puts the reader right in the heart of Regency London, and the hunt for a killer is tense and frightening.

Two mysteries explore the glamour and ugliness of the 1920s.

Ah, the eternal allure of the citizen sleuth, with their uncanny ability to suss out lies and turn mystery into clarity—all without a badge or uniform. In these two 1920s-set mysteries, brave, intelligent women solve murder cases despite societal strictures, the people (mostly men) rooting for them to fail and the slippery piles of red herrings that do not look good with a cloche hat or beaded gown.

Australian author Kerry Greenwood’s witty and creative Death in Daylesford stars the particularly fabulous Phryne Fisher, with her exquisite and exquisitely expensive clothes, malachite bathtub and Hispano-Suiza luxury car. She has a hearty sexual appetite and a penchant for wearing trousers, and she delights in ignoring the scandalized gasps she leaves in her wake.

Miss Fisher’s 21st adventure has been eagerly awaited by fans, who most likely passed the time since 2014’s Murder and Mendelssohn by rewatching episodes of the TV adaptation of the series, “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries,” and its companion film, Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. 

This time around, the crimes find Phryne. She has left her opulent Melbourne home for a trip to the countryside with her faithful assistant, Dot. In Daylesford, Phryne meets Captain Spencer and tours his spa, which serves as a retreat for shellshocked World War I veterans. He’s hoping for her financial support, and she’s hoping to enjoy a relaxing week away from the city. 

Alas, it’s not long before a murder happens right before her and Dot’s very eyes. And then they learn that three women have recently gone missing. Lovely, rural Daylesford is rife with secrets and liars, and Phryne and Dot resolve to figure out why evil is swirling around the local Temperance Hotel and two of its employees. 

Back in Melbourne, Dot’s police-sergeant fiancé, Hugh, is keeping an eye on Phryne’s three teenage wards, who become embroiled in a murder mystery of their own when a pregnant classmate is found floating in the Yarra River. Hugh enlists the teens’ help, and the trio strive to make Phryne proud as they search for clues and question schoolmates with savvy aplomb.

Death in Daylesford’s parallel storylines offer up a bounty of increasingly inventive crimes bolstered by delectable descriptions of captivating scenery and decadent meals. Additional delights come in the forms of nicely developed queer relationships and a wicked range of snarky insults. (Hugh’s boss “could lose a three-round bout with a revolving door,” while another character is “as plastered as a Giotto fresco.”) This is a vivid and never-boring visit to 1920s Australia, led by the beloved and unconventional Miss Fisher.

Debut author Nekesa Afia’s Dead Dead Girls introduces Louise Lovie Lloyd, who, like Phryne Fisher, is an intelligent and beautiful woman in her 20s with an eye for fashion and a facility for solving crimes. But as a Black woman living in 1926 Harlem, Louise is brand-new to the investigatory game, and not by choice. While leaving the Zodiac speakeasy, where she and her girlfriend, Rosa Maria, go to drink, dance and revel in their “easy, effortless connection that she never needed to think about,” Louise gets into an altercation with a racist white police officer that ends with her punching him in the face. 

After Louise is arrested, Detective Theodore Gilbert tells her that if she helps him figure out who’s killing Black teenage girls in Harlem, he’ll clear her record. She’s loath to do so, not only because it means ceding part of her life to this imperious stranger, but also because it would thrust her into the public eye—something she’s been avoiding since becoming “Harlem’s Hero” 10 years ago, when she escaped a kidnapper and freed three other girls trapped with her.  

Self-preservation and a desire to protect Harlem’s vulnerable girls, including her teenage twin sisters, compel Louise to accept Gilbert’s ruthless bargain. She employs her smarts and empathy in equal measure, adeptly navigating Harlem’s criminal underworld even as the killer strikes anew and the very air is permeated with dread and terror.

Afia’s Jazz Age setting, with its surges of artistic creativity, infuses the story with a crackling feeling of possibility that stands in sharp contrast to the frustrating and often devastating realities of Louise’s life. While she has love and friendship, she also must contend with virulent racism and sexism; she feels constrained by those who seek to control her and hindered by her nagging self-doubt.

While Louise is just 5 feet, 2 inches tall, she is anything but diminutive in personality, bravery or determination. Afia has created a character that readers will root for—to solve the crimes, to prevail over injustice, to love herself as fiercely as she works to protect those around her.