While some may say that historical fiction is a place to seek refuge, the following titles, immersed as they are in eras of chaos, war, brutality, and inequality, should read as anything but comforting (except, perhaps, for the solace of solidarity, given the difficulties of our own era). They are also excellent reminders that history is both familiar and strange, recognizable and foreign, horrifying and humorous, and as full of contradictions as any modern setting. History is complicated. These books help place the human element within its vast, buffeting forces, and serve as an empathy-inducing antidote to the notion of suffering as acceptable simply because it is ever-present.
As always, the titles below are arranged chronologically based on their settings.
Jo Harkin, The Pretender
Setting: England, Ireland, Burgundy, 15th Century
At the tail end of the Wars of the Roses, an ordinary farm boy is plucked from his simple village life and trained up to become a king. He’s been swapped for a commoner at birth by his dead Earl of a father and forgotten about in the midst of internecine warfare; now, he’s the last hope for the house of York to triumph over its Tudor rivals. But does he have the stuff it takes to fight through his own doubts and become king? And will he survive the endless sacrifices demanded in his ascent to the throne? This is an excellent book to help you understand the inspirations behind Game of Thrones, or the power politics of Elaine’s kingdom in Wheel of Time. Also, when my colleague asked me how The Pretender was getting comped to both Hamnet and Wolf Hall, I went with “the realpolitik of Wolf Hall and the ever-present grief of Hamnet” and he said he was going to use that description which means I must include it here first…
Phil Melanson, Florenzer
(Liveright)
Setting: Renaissance Italy
Leonardo da Vinci! Lorenzo de Medici! Murder! Commissioned art! Papal armies! Queer love affairs! There appear to be all these and more in Phil Melanson’s bloody and beautiful exploration of Renaissance Florence at a time beset by political chaos, and filled with glorious new artistic creations. All I’ve got under my belt so far is the cast of characters, but those names alone show that this volume is sure to be a ROMP.
Ariel Dorfman, Allegro
(Other Press)
Setting: England, Central Europe, mid-18th century
Could Johann Sebastian Bach have been murdered by an unscrupulous eye doctor? And could Mozart have put the pieces together and decided to investigate the unexpected death of his beloved mentor? That is the premise of Ariel Dorfman’s immersive new novel, Allegro, divided between Mozart’s precocious childhood and disillusioned adulthood.
AJ West, The Betrayal of Thomas True
(Orenda)
Setting: Georgian England
The Betrayal of Thomas True has an incredible setting: the Molly Houses of Georgian England, spaces for male sex workers to safely ply their trade and host to the queer luminaries of London and their spectacular salons and performances. A bouncer for the most famed Molly House is tasked with solving a series of murders threatening their community, as he falls deeply in love with a newcomer to the city. Historical crime fiction perfection!
Lila Cain, The Blackbirds of St Giles
(Dafina)
Setting: Early 19th Century London
A Black soldier who served with the British during the American Revolution heads to England with his sister to claim his inheritance after a surprise windfall. Instead, the two siblings find themselves robbed and stranded in the poorest section of turn-of-the-century London, a slum known as the “rookery”, and fall under the tyrannical sway of the local crime boss. Cain’s novel paints a fascinating and immersive portrait of London’s substantial Black community in the Georgian Era, full of compelling characters, rich detail, and lush set-pieces. Also Lila Cain is in fact two people—Kate Griffin and Marcia Hutchinson—and I love to recommend a good collaboration!
Allison Epstein, Fagin the Thief
(Doubleday)
Setting: Early Victorian Era London
I’ve longed for a retelling of Fagin’s life, and Allison Epstein, in possession of a deep knowledge of history and a rare talent for characterization, is the perfect one to take on this story.
Virginia Feito, Victorian Psycho
(Liveright)
Setting: Victorian Era Countryside
This book is so nasty, in the best way. A governess with a host of secrets begins a new job corralling a wealthy family’s ill-behaved brats, ready to give them her lackadaisical all, but her bad luck, strange behaviors, and even stranger appetites can only result in a delightfully vicious bloodbath. Feito’s novel reads like Henry James on steroids, for what I’m sure will be one of the most unhinged tales of the year.
Alex Hay, The Queen of Fives
(Graydon House)
Setting: Late Victorian Era London
Perhaps 2025 is the year of the heist, especially given the IRL increase in property crimes against the uberwealthy (excuse me while I go in search of the world’s tiniest violin, which would probably be locked up in a billionaire’s art collection or a Swiss warehouse). Alex Hay already won me over with the impeccably crafted Housekeepers, and The Queen of Fives should cement Hay’s reputation as the underworld king of Victorian capers, featuring a long con for the ages, a queer-coded marriage plot, and plenty of outfit changes.
Kat Dunn, Hungerstone
(Zando)
Setting: Victorian Era English Countryside
Before the very gay Dracula was ever conceived, there was the much gayer Carmilla—a queer-coded novella of female desire and insatiable hunger. Kat Dunn has taken that original inspiration and made it much stranger (and hotter), as we follow the journey of an unhappy aristocratic wife slowly coming to embrace her unholy appetites, under the guidance of an extremely sexy vampire/chaos queen.
David Demchuk and Corinne Leigh Clark, The Butcher’s Daughter
(Hell’s Hundred)
Setting: Victorian Era London
While 2025 is simply flooded with cannibals in fiction, there’s only one featuring the maker of meat pies herself: Mrs. Lovett. How ever did the mysterious matron of Sweeney Todd get her gruesome start in the world? Perhaps it began with her happy childhood in a butcher shop, a happiness ending abruptly upon the death of her father and the newly dangerous circumstances of her life—first as a maid to a dangerous master, and later as a prisoner in a convent determined to tell her sorry tale to any and all sympathetic listeners.
Radha Vatsal, No. 10 Doyers Street
(Level Best Books)
Setting: New York City, 1907
Radha Vatsal has impressed me with her precise and astute observations and rich detail for some time, and her upcoming book shows Vatsal at the top of her game. In No. 10 Doyers Street, a woman from India working as a tabloid journalist in New York City stumbles on the biggest story of her life when a Chinatown gangster is found murdered and the city appears ready to jump on the crime as an excuse to demolish the entire neighborhood. A particularly resonant storyline at the moment, with immigrant communities under attack from on high, and media organizations bowing down before the new administration.
Stephen Graham Jones, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
(S&S/Saga Press)
Setting: American West, 1912
Sit up, everyone: Stephen Graham Jones has a new novel! It’s about the discovery of a diary written by a white Lutheran pastor in 1912—a diary which chronicles, over several visits, an interview with a Blackfeet vampire named Good Stab in which he explains his lifelong quest for revenge. –Olivia Rutigliano, CrimeReads editor
Robert Littell, Bronshtein in the Bronx
(Soho Press)
Setting: New York City, 1920s
For those who enjoyed Yuri Hererra’s account of Mexican hero Benito Juarez’s time in New Orleans, here’s another tale of revolutionary exile: Trotsky in NYC! Robert Littel is the perfect person to take on this daunting task without sacrificing story, and I’m psyched to dive into Leon’s days in the city I once called home.
Maggie Stiefvater, The Listeners
(Viking)
Setting: West Virginia, WWII
The Listeners has all the glorious backdrops and sinister undertones of Remains of the Day or Rules of the Game (there’s even a lovelorn flying ace). I’m serious—almost every page of this novel made me think of the “Anticipation” speech from the end of Gosford Park.
In a West Virginia resort famed for its luxurious standards and healing mineral waters, the sturdy general manager has guided her hotel through the Great Depression, only to find herself facing an enormous new challenge as war breaks out. The hotel has been ordered to host Axis “internees”—mostly German, Italian, and Japanese diplomats—in pampered confinement, and under the watchful eyes of toughened G-men, until they can be repatriated to their homelands. The hotel workers find themselves recruited to spy on their reluctant new guests in an uneasy dynamic further complicated by the demands of the draft and the start of wartime rationing. Stiefvater bases her novel in real history, featuring plenty of anecdotes that are far too strange to be fictional, and glorying in the wild beauty of her mountain setting.
Daniel Kehlmann, The Director
Translated by Ross Benjamin
(Simon and Schuster / Summit Books)
Setting: Austria, WWII
The new novel from the internationally renowned Kehlmann centers on the turbulent life and art of G.W. Pabst, the Austrian screenwriter and director. Kehlmann’s novel traces Pabst’s journey fleeing from Nazi Germany, through the Hollywood doldrums, and back to Austria, where he’s soon recruited by Joseph Goebbels to produce propaganda films for the Reich. –DM
Isa Arsén, The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf
(Putnam)
Setting: New York City and Nevadan desert, 1950s
Arsén’s sophomore effort is equal parts sultry and cultured, featuring two Shakespearian actors in an unusual but emotionally fulfilling marriage of convenience who find themselves in a sticky situation. They’ve been hired for a rather strange gig: an eccentric criminal has built a replica globe in the middle of the desert, and he’s ready to bring Shakespeare to life for his audience of one. At first, Margaret is merely there to tag along while her husband enjoys a leading role in Titus Andronicus; she’s recovering from a mental breakdown from the last time she starred in the Scottish Play. When she bonds with their benefactor, however, she finds herself reluctantly agreeing to give the lady one more try. When her marriage is threatened, she turns to her character to find the strength to do what needs to be done, in a perfectly-plotted denouement.
Susan Meissner, The Map to Paradise
(Berkley)
Setting: Malibu, California, 1956
A blacklisted actress with too much time on her hands teams up with her clever, secretive housekeeper to investigate the disappearance of their neighbor, a reclusive writer. His sister-in-law, who’s been his longtime caregiver, insists he hasn’t vanished, and is merely working on his latest script in private. As the women grow closer, and increasingly suspicious of each other’s motives, they reveal shocking secrets and dark pasts.
Daphne Fama, House of Monstrous Women
(Berkley)
Setting: Phillippines, 1986
I really hope the title of this book is an ode to the cult classic film studies memoir, House of Psychotic Women, although the subject matter has little in common. Set in the Philippines in the 1980s, at the tail end of a dictator’s long reign, the novel follows three young people playing a game that may secure one of them the future of their dreams. In order to win, they must play at hide and seek in an enormous old home full of monstrous collections and built atop an ancient altar. Outside the remote villa, protesters gather their strength, and the current regime will soon be toppled—but what comes next?
Cynthia Weiner, A Gorgeous Excitement
(Crown Publishing Group)
Setting: New York City, 1980s
This book will haunt me for a long time. Cynthia Weiner is intimately familiar with the 1980s NYC preppy scene: close enough to recall its details, and distant enough to critique it intelligently. In this riff on the story of the notorious Preppy Killer and his much-maligned victim, Cynthia Weiner condemns the callous attitudes and conspicuous consumption of an entire strata of society ready to believe the worst of an outsider while refusing to see the truth of one of their own.
Eva Menasse, Darkenbloom
Translated by Charlotte Collins
(Scribe)
Setting: The border between Austria and Hungary, 1989
In the sleepy town of Darkenbloom, located on the border between Austria and Hungary, a seemingly bucolic surface covers a dark history of unspeakable crimes. Those who suffered under the Nazis (at least, those who survived) live side-by-side with their former tormenters in a fragile detente. Their peace is shattered by the end of the cold war and the Pan-European Picnic, in which hundreds of East Germans on holiday in Hungary fled across the border, seeking asylum and unwittingly opening old wounds. Meanwhile, a mysterious visitor to the insular community is poking around in the past, a past much of the town would prefer not to recall. Stunning & shattering, Darkenbloom is also the rare historical novel to make full use of its setting. It’s also a disturbingly relevant piece of fiction, as we watch our friends and neighbors being taken away by governmental forces hell-bent on enforcing brutal and deeply damaging policies with no purpose beyond bigotry.
