Historical mysteries let the reader be picked up and be transported to different times and places. A good story is a painless way to get into the period, and, if it features a unsolved crime or two, give a look at history’s darker underside.

Bellfield Hall by Anna Dean

Pride and prescience, or, A truth universally acknowledged by Carrie Bebris

Mute witness by Charles O'Brien

A beautiful blue death by Charles Finch

A conspiracy of paper by David Liss