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, gives a look at history’s darker underside.

As if by magic by Dolores Gordon-Smith

Everybody kills somebody sometime by Robert J. Randisi

The reeve's tale by Margaret Frazer

Blood alone by James R. Benn

India Black by Carol K. Carr

This month in history Benedict Arnold was executed, Marilyn Monroe was born, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album was released, WWII Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, and the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York.

The real Benedict Arnold by Jim Murphy

The making of Some like it hot: my memories of Marilyn Monroe and the classic American movie by Tony Curtis with Mark A. Vieira

D-day: the battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [sound recording] by The Beatles

Enlightening the world: the creation of the Statue of Liberty by Yasmin Sabina Khan

Our favorite reads this year from the Adult and Children/Tweens/Teens Librarians:

Behind the beautiful forevers by Katherine Boo

We've got a job: the 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson

The righteous mind: why good people are divided by politics and religion by Jonathan Haidt

Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking by Susan Cain

Paris: a love story: a memoir by Kati Marton

The 600th year celebration of the birth of Joan of Arc is being celebrated in 2012. Born in France in 1412, she is considered a national heroine and one of the country's patron saints. Nicknamed the "Maid of Orleans", she was a peasant girl who claimed divine guidance when leading the French army to several significant victories during the Hundred Year's War. Captured by the enemy, she was tried for heresy and burned at the stake when she was only 19. Twenty five years later the pope cleared her name and declared her a martyr. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920.

Joan of Arc: a Penguin life by Mary Gordon

Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years War by Deborah A. Fraioli

Joan of Arc: her story by Régine Pernoud, Marie- Véronique Clin

Daredevil by Mark Waid. Vol. 1

Electric barracuda [sound recording] by Tim Dorsey

The fault in our stars by John Green

The marriage plot [sound recording]: a novel by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Paris wife: a novel by Paula McLain

The Paris wife [Large print]: a novel by Paula McLain

Doc [Large print] by Mary Doria Russell

Treason at Lisson Grove [Large print]: a Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novel by Anne Perry

Books can be deceiving [Large print] by Jenn McKinlay

Buried secrets [Large print] by Joseph Finder

A covert affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS by Jennet Conant

Once upon a river: a novel by Bonnie Jo Campbell

The fires of the gods: a Sugawara Akitada mystery by I.J. Parker

The last stand [sound recording]: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick

The piano teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

These just in:

How to crash a killer bash by Penny Warner

Dream queen by Betsy Thornton

Betrayers by Bill Pronzini

Night of the living deed by E. J. Copperman

Murder in the air by Bill Crider

Fatally frosted: a donut shop mystery by Jessica Beck

Crime Through Time.  Have you tried these historical mystery series?

Thirteenth night : a medieval mystery by Alan Gordon

Cocaine blues : a Phryne Fisher mystery by Kerry Greenwood

A play of Isaac by Margaret Frazer

Sweet poison by David Roberts

Death comes as epiphany by Sharan Newman

Game of patience by Susanne Alleyn