historical fiction

Burial Rites is a fiction book based on real events that occurred in Iceland in the early 1800s. Agnes Magnusdottir is charged with the brutal murder of two men and is ordered to reside with a family and serve as their maid until her execution. Agnes is treated harshly by the townspeople and the family. She is viewed as a monster and they fear her.  Young Reverend Thorvardur has been assigned to council Agnes and he is hopeful that he can steer her toward repentance before her death. It is during the many conversations with the reverend that Agnes shares her version of events that occurred

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith is historical fiction set in Stalinist Russia when the Government was all powerful and all were constantly watched over by officials. One wrong move could send you to a work camp in Siberia, never to be seen again. Life was hard, and on top of that Smith throws in a serial killer that moves throughout Russia killing children and women at will. Defending this system is idealistic security officer Leo Demidov, a war hero who believes in the iron fist of the law. But when Leo begins to investigate the serial murders he makes a wrong move and becomes disliked by a higher

This is the first book in the Phryne Fisher Mystery series, a charmingly written series set in in early 20th century Melbourne, Australia. The atmospheric and well-researched details in these novels create an engrossing view into 1920s Melbourne society at all levels. The cast has its regulars, like Jack Robinson, the long-suffering and orchid-loving policeman, Cec and Burt, the wharfies who hope for a socialist revolution, and Lin Chung, the well-to-do son of Chinese immigrants. Included in each book is an ever-changing variety of folks from all walks of Australian life, who round out the

The White Princess is the fifth of Philippa Gregory's Cousins' War series, this one focusing on Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.  Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, ending the War of the Roses, to become Henry VII.  To unite the York and Lancastrian families, Princess Elizabeth was forced to marry Henry VII, whom she believed to be the murderer of her love, Richard III.  Henry VII was suspicious of everyone and everything around him, making one wonder how anyone could have had a very satisfactory life. 

Ms. Gregory has created fear and

Nothing funnier than a cross-dressing slave boy riding the circuit with crazy ole John Brown.  Offensive, hilarious, violent and sad, James McBride fills the Kansas Territory with characters straight out of a Mel Brooks movie and then throws in a dash of Quentin Tarantino for good measure.  How McBride managed to weave Harriet Tubman in to the buffoonery without offending the reader is beyond me.  I highly recommend!

This is a coming-of-age story, a love story, and a retelling of the Iliad all in one masterfully told epic. Miller at once succeeds in adding depth and substance to Achilles and Patroclus and also preserving the dramatic feel of the war that is the backdrop to their relationship.

Patroclus is awed and then befriended by Achilles, a young prince who is the opposite of Patroclus: easy in his young body, beautiful, privileged. As their friendship develops into a love affair, they are carried along by the fate that we know propels them toward a tragedy. Miller develops her characters with a sure

Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley may have been born a slave, but she was not destined to remain one.  Her exceptional skill as a seamstress won for her both freedom and the acquaintance of many of society's elite, the most notable of these, Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln.  The focus of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker is on Elizabeth's life and that of her family, then turns to the relationship between she and Mrs. Lincoln as they navigate the stormy waters of Lincoln's presidency.  An up close and personal look at the White House and behind-the-scenes dealings while the Lincolns were in residence, this book is

The Devil's Workshop is the third in Grecian's Murder Squad series. Inspector Walter Day, and his partner, Nevil Hammersmith are joined by Day's former mentor, retired detective inspector Adrian March. After a train derails and sets loose convicted murderers on the London streets, these three inspectors must investigate the accident and prison, trying to determine just how many former prisoners are now on the loose. One of these escapees is the former police tailor, turned murderer, Cinderhouse, which Hammersmith and Day captured in The Black Country. Unsure whether they are looking for 4 or 5

The companion novel to Saints, this book looks at the same situation from a different angle. Little Bao has grown up reenacting his favorite Chinese operas and looking up to his father. When his father is hobbled by European colonists, Bao's older brothers take over the family, relegating Bao to the role of little brother. In secret he trains with a martial arts master, and quickly out paces his brothers. When colonists threaten his small village, Bao harnesses the power of an ancient Chinese emperor to fight against them.

Sharing the secret of his martial arts training, Bao gathers and army

City of Thieves is one of those books recommended to me time and again, and I always think, "Oh yes, I must read this," and then I never get around to it.  But after stumbling across the audio version and seeing that it was narrated by Ron Perlman, I knew I couldn't delay any longer.  I'm so glad I didn't.  City starts with Lev, our hero, discovering a dead German paratrooper frozen on the streets of Leningrad.  The year is 1941 and the Russians are under siege from the Nazis, starving and freezing to death in bitterly large numbers.  Lev decides to pocket the paratrooper's knife and then is

Four Girl is unwanted and unloved by her family. Seen as a demon-child, her family practically gives her up as a lost cause. Four girl, searching for acceptance discovers catholic missionaries near her small Chinese village. After one exceptionally harsh experience with her grandfather, Four runs into the forest and sees a vision of Jeanne D'Arc. As Four distances herself from her family, and grows closer to the missionaries visions of Jeanne come more often, offering peace and guidance.

When her family discovers that Four plans to convert to Catholicism, the beat her, and Four, now

An unconventional telling of Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, Quarantine grips the reader in a mysterious world of deception and dream. We follow six characters' sojourn in the desert: a merchant and his wife, a wealthy but barren Jewish woman, an elderly Jewish man suffering from a tumor, a madman from the east, a philosophical young Greek, and Jesus the Galilean. It is a believable work of historical fiction with a twist of suspense. At the end the reader is left to interpret the meaning of events.

Crace's writing holds nothing back, exposing his characters' raw and unflattering motives

This book is such a great and eerie read. Hoffman’s work of historical fiction paints a despairing portrait of two lives which become intertwined through a series of odd events. Coralie is a disfigured girl who is forced to perform as a mermaid in her father’s Museum of Extraordinary Things on Coney Island. She longs for a normal life and yet is able to find friendship among all of the other abnormal employees, especially the housekeeper Maureen. Ezekiel is a young son of an immigrant Russian Jew who watches his father be forced to work in unsafe working conditions while making hardly any

I confess, I was not immediately entranced by Harvest, and it was not until I started following the popular Downton Abbey television series that I began to appreciate the perspective presented in Jim Crace’s novel. This book offers a glimpse of life on the grounds beyond a great house during a time of modernization.

The story takes place in a secluded English village in some unspecified past, during a time when Inclosure Acts began allowing privatizing the open fields of English manors, and landowners transitioned from community crop harvests to more profitable forms of agriculture. Against

The setting is Russia. The time is 1914. The place is a count’s estate. From the time she was young, Lara has spent most of her time in the kennels with the famed borzoi dogs. For centuries these dogs were bred by aristocrats for hunting. To Lara, they are her life and her future. She has a special bond with the dogs that goes beyond the normal relationship between animals and their humans.

What seems so obvious to Lara, that she belongs in the kennel with the Borzoi, is not as clear-cut to her father. And in 1914, the decision is her father’s to make.

This story would be a good read for

If you’re in the mood for a long book and like family histories with a supernatural twist, try The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. While the story is set in the same world as her vampire series, there are no vampires in this book. Instead, the tale of the Mayfair witches is told from their beginning several hundred years ago to the present.

Those familiar with the vampire stories will recognize the Talamasca, whose motto is “we watch and we are always here,” and who play a significant role in the Mayfair witches’ story. The Talamasca are an order of scholars who study the supernatural. They are

In Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest work of fiction, Alma Whittaker is born in 1800 to her parents, Henry and Beatrix, who are themselves interesting characters. Henry grew up poor and very resentful of this fact, although his father did teach him the one thing that changed his life, which was botany. Henry is a self-made man and is now one of the wealthiest men in America. Both he and Beatrix are very unconventional parents.  Scientific in nature, they encourage their daughter to explore their large estate—as long as she is doing something to further her intellect. Like her father, Alma becomes

The Girl You Left Behind is broken into two time periods: the first in 1916 with Sophie Lefevre struggling to keep herself and her family alive in a German-occupied town in France. Her beloved husband Edouard, a French artist who studied under Matisse, is fighting at the Front. When the local Kommandant takes an interest in a painting that Edouard did of his wife, Sophie is forced to make life-altering decisions regarding how much she will do to survive the war and save her husband.

Almost a century later, Liv Halston is a young widow in London, still recovering from the sudden death of her

I've got a literary crush on Daniel Woodrell, who's the author of Winter's Bone and once lived right here in Johnson County, Kansas, before settling back down in his ancestral home in the Missouri Ozarks near the Arkansas border.

Mr. Woodrell first launched his writing career as a crime novelist with his haunting and gritty Bayou Trilogy  featuring Detective Rene Shade in the Louisiana swamp town of Saint Bruno, a place where "tempers went on the prowl and relief was driving a hard bargain."  Soon after came Woe to Live On , which was adapted into the Ang Lee filmRide With the Devil and

Two librarians from the Johnson County Library, Christine Peterson and Gregg Winsor, discuss Bernard Cornwell's novel "1356" and some other favorites from the historical fiction genre. Listen to the discussion, or check out the books they discussed here.

I typically roll my eyes at romance novels--they are so fake! But Eleanor & Park is different. Perhaps because Eleanor and Park are different. Eleanor Douglas and Park Sheridan--the lead characters in this romance--are different from most romance novel characters, but also just different. Different from their boorish peers. Different from their lame teachers. Different from their parents. And it's their feelings of being different that brings them together in a glorious display of misfit love.

Eleanor and Park meet on the bus. It's 1986 in Omaha, Nebraska. Eleanor is the new kid at school

Historical Fiction is set in the past, either before the author’s birth or at least 50 years in the past. The main characters are generally fictional but the settings are usually real and attempt to accurately capture the history, manners and social conditions of the times. Attention to historical facts and detail is imperative.

Get reading some of our favorite essential picks from the Historical Fiction genre »

Follow along with us on Facebook this month for an in-depth introduction to the Historical Fiction genre. Each month we’re suggesting books, posting quizzes and infographics, and

Before reading Doc by Mary Doria Russell, the only thing I knew about the famous Doc Holiday was that he looked remarkably like Val Kilmer and often suggested his peers might be Daisies. What a delight to read about this fascinating and complex gentleman. Russell tells Doc’s story from the very beginning; John Henry Holiday’s birth. His hold on life was tenuous from the start, as he was born with a hare-lip. Only because his uncle was a skilled surgeon, who performed the cutting-edge surgery, did Doc survive at all. His mother, to whom he was devoted, passed when he was fifteen of tuberculosis

Never growing beyond two feet and eight inches, Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Bump spent much of her life hidden by her parents. However, when she impressed legendary showman P.T. Barnum, she suddenly became the world's most unlikely celebrity. In this fictional autobiography, Vinnie recounts her life, her travels with Barnum, and her wedding to co-worker and fellow tiny superstar, General Tom Thumb, and much, much more. This tiny woman lived a huge life.

Train Dreams is a weird little book. Only 116 pages but sweeping in scope, it tells the story of Robert Grainer, born in the late 1800s, orphaned and sent to live in the Pacific Northwest where he becomes an itinerant laborer, finds a wife and has a daughter, and experiences happiness so surreal it surely can’t last. It doesn’t. What remains of Grainer’s long life is a story distilled into only the most essential telling.

Author Denis Johnson combines humor with tragedy in such a way to make the poignancy of Train Dreams more tender than can be imagined. If you’re like me, you’ll want to ride

The Shoemaker’s Wife is a love story set in the early 1900’s, first in the Italian Alps when Enza and Ciro meet and leave a very distinct impression on each other, then later in New York City where they meet up again by chance. Both of their lives are shaped by their childhoods - Ciro being raised in a convent by nuns with his brother after his father passes away, & Enza as the oldest child of five with the pressure of keeping her family financially afloat. When a scandal causes Ciro to leave the convent and come to America, he becomes an apprentice to a shoemaker and quickly learns the trade

How far would you go to know the truth about your father? When orphan Carver Young discovers a letter written by his father, he becomes caught up in the hunt for a notorious killer who just may hold the keys to his past. Receiving help from friends, a famous Pinkerton detective, and even Theodore Roosevelt himself, Carver will discover that perhaps it is better to leave the past buried.

I love a good mystery and this story is just that. Set in the turn-of-the-century New York, Ripper is a fun and exciting mystery tale that seems to have it all: chases, intrigue, the crazy mentor, roof-top

QB VII is a work of historical fiction that was written in 1970 and that takes place from the 1940’s to 1967. QB VII is a courthouse in London where a good portion of the book takes place. Before getting to the trial, the story follows the lives of Dr. Adam Kelno, a Polish doctor who was in the infamous Jadwiga Concentration Camp during World War II, and Abraham Cady, an American author who wrote about the Holocaust. Both men are haunted by their pasts.

Through the course of the book we are given glimpses into different parts of the world during the first half of the twentieth century

The setting is Berlin and the year is 1936.  In award winning author, Jeffrey Deaver’s book, Garden of Beasts, Germany is planning rearmament while Hitler is strengthening his rise to power. Main character, Paul Schumann, is a hit man for the mob who has been set up and caught by the Feds in New York during one of his assassination attempts.  He is brought to their offices and given a frightening choice: life in prison or go to Germany under the guise of an Olympic journalist and kill the head of Germany’s rearmament campaign, Col. Richard Ernst.  From the moment he steps off the boat and

The Chaperone is Laura Moriarty’s fourth novel and her first historical fiction. As the title suggests, Moriarty created an unforgettable heroine in an ordinary and conservative chaperone, Cora Carlisle. Cora is a respectable and sensible mother and wife of a prosperous Wichita lawyer with a seemingly perfect life. To everyone’s surprise, Cora volunteers to chaperone fifteen-year-old mischievous Louise Brooks, the future silent movie star, to New York City to study modern dance in the summer of 1922. However, Cora has her own reasons why she wants and needs to go to New York City. Most of the