Historical Thriller Books

The best historical thriller book reviews. Historical thrillers feature suspenseful situations set in specific time periods, in which the survival of fictional characters are threatened by the real circumstances of prior historical eras and places.

The Coded Crucifix, a Breathtaking Terrorism Thriller by David A. Dummer

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The Bottom Line: A breathtaking collision of explosive secrets, psychological warfare and international intrigue, The Coded Crucifix is a terrorism thriller with extraordinary emotional firepower. The Coded Crucifix opens with two fresh corpses in a Pamplona apartment and a ruthless killer slipping into the crowds gathering for Spain’s legendary Running of the Bulls. Author David A. Dummer, in his follow-up to Born of Bombs and

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The Best Lucy Foley Books in Order (Updated!)

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Looking for a list of Lucy Foley books in recommended reading order? You’ve come to the right place. Bestselling British author Lucy Foley is a favorite among fans of contemporary mystery and crime fiction and critics alike. She also writes historical fiction. Recently, Foley was officially commissioned by the Agatha Christie estate to write Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, a new mystery featuring Agatha

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Westwind, a Meticulously Plotted WWII Thriller by Karen K. Brees

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The Bottom Line: A meticulously plotted WWII thriller where the battle for Britain moves from the skies to Whitehall.  Set during World War II, opens as London is in disarray. German bombing raids have turned it into a city of blackouts, rubble and shortages. Against that instability, MI6 agent Katrin Nissen faces an enemy operating inside Britain’s own institutions. Katrin’s husband and fellow intelligence operative,

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Echoes of Fortune: Knights of the Golden Circle, a Must-Read Thriller by David R. Leng

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The Bottom Line: A must-read conspiracy thriller built on one jaw-dropping idea: the Confederacy’s heirs are waging a new battle for America. The third book in David R. Leng’s Echoes of Fortune series is a fast-moving thriller about a perpetual war that has survived by learning not to look like one. The story begins in 1864, during the final winter of the American Civil War.

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Gorgons, a Wildly Imaginative Archeology Thriller by Ox Devere

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The Bottom Line: A wildly imaginative archeology thriller that makes Greek myth feel new and dangerous. Ox Devere’s third Ridley Samaras thriller has the kind of premise that sells itself: what if the myth of Perseus and Medusa was not myth at all? On a sun-blasted dig site above the Aegean, Gorgons wastes no time turning archaeology into danger. The breakthrough comes when Dr. Nasrin

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Miriam in the Shadows, an Electrifying World War II Spy Thriller

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The Bottom Line: An electrifying World War II spy thriller that is deeply atmospheric, propulsive and profoundly human. Set during World War II, Miriam in the Shadows opens as Jewish Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent Miriam Maduro plunges toward Nazi-occupied northern France. Her mission is to infiltrate a heavily fortified enemy installation linked to Germany’s secret rocket program and sabotage it from within. The task is made all the more harrowing

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Red Mound, an Archeology Thriller With a Huge Payoff

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The Bottom Line: Red Mound digs up dread by inches, then delivers a shocking finale that readers won’t soon forget. B.D. Smith’s Red Mound opens with an archaeological mystery already sealed in dread. Centuries before the main action, a temple mound in the lower Mississippi Valley, in what is now eastern Arkansas, is ritually sealed, its central chamber protected by ceremony and clean white sand.

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The Unlikely Huntress, an Explosive New Spy Thriller by Stephen Maitland-Lewis

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The Bottom Line: Atmospheric and explosive, The Unlikely Huntress builds dread in whispers and delivers its punches with startling force Stephen Maitland-Lewis returns to the harrowing world he built in Legacy of Atonement with a powerful sequel, The Unlikely Huntress. Set nearly a decade after the events of the first novel, ten years have passed since young Giselle Faber, then a recent graduate in her first job, stumbled into a

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Vatican Daughter is the Year’s Best Conspiracy Thriller

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The Bottom Line: Voted the Year’s Best Conspiracy Thriller in the 2025 BestThrillers.com Book Awards. The novel begins in Vatican City, where newly elected Pope Joseph Morris slips into the papal garments. Just before stepping out to greet the adoring throngs in St. Peter’s Square, he asks one of the assisting clergy, Cardinal Roselli, to hear his confession. And much to Roselli’s surprise, the Pope discloses

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Swallowing the Muskellunge, a Lyrical Historical Fantasy Thriller by Lawrence O’Brien

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The Bottom Line: A historical fantasy with teeth, told with startling elegance and lyricism. Swallowing the Muskellunge is the story of London Oxford, an ex-slave navigating a world where freedom can be threatened by violence, the whims of powerful men and forces he cannot name. London commits his family to a precarious northbound winter caravan of sleighs headed toward a “promised land” in what would

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