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 Desiderata Stone, an Unputdownable Historical Thriller by Nick Aaron

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The Bottom Line: An unputdownable historical thriller that gloriously tethers ancient Rome to the 1960s. In the sixth installment in Nick Aaron’s wildly popular Blind Sleuth Mysteries series, set in 1964, 41-year-old intern Daisy Hayes travels to Rome. There, upon invitation from doting Father Boudry, she has the opportunity to study sculptures by touch at the Vatican Museums. It’s a rare treat – as Daisy […]

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D for Daisy, a Remarkable World War II Mystery by Nick Aaron

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The Bottom Line: A highly engaging World War II mystery with a remarkable amateur sleuth at the helm.  Set during World War II, D for Daisy begins as the eponymously named British bomber returns to base. The landing is a harrowing one, as the plane’s pilot, Ralph Prendergast, is dead on arrival. It’s up to the flight engineer to take the controls while the rest of the crew hangs on

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They Became Silent (Book 2), a Highly Recommended Conspiracy Thriller

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The Bottom Line: A terrifying conspiracy thriller that blends real-life history with a fight for survival that is every bit as imaginative as The Hunger Games. Highly recommended.  They Became Silent (Book 2) picks up where the first installment left off, following the tragic death of a beloved civil rights leader. Violence has shaken cities across America and is subject to strictly enforced sundown curfew, with security

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Verity Easton, a Magical & Absorbing Murder Mystery by M. Rebecca Wildsmith

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The Bottom Line: Lucy Foley fans will fall hard for ’s magical and absorbing new murder mystery, Verity Easton.   Set in the 1930s, opens aboard a steamer ship sailing turbulent seas near the coast of Malta. Thirteen-year-old Verity is accompanying her father, a professor at the British Museum, who is tasked with finding the ancient resting place of ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti. Making the trip

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Blood Before Dawn

BLOOD BEFORE DAWN, The Year’s Best Historical Thriller

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The Bottom Line: The year’s best historical thriller (Winner, The BestThrillers.com Book Awards). April 1979: Ken Verrier and his wife, Sam return to Liberia only to buy diamonds, but they get caught up in a bloody rice riot and a coup d’état. Ken witnesses and unwittingly participates in a period of Liberia’s tumultuous yet poorly documented history—the overthrow of the Tolbert presidency that ultimately ends

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The Memory Seeker, an Astonishing Historical Thriller by Ronald Niezen

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The Bottom Line: An astonishing debut novel that establishes Ronald Niezen as one of the most exciting new voices in historical fiction. Peter Dekker, fresh off a fellowship at Cambridge, takes a job as an investigator for the International Criminal Court in The Hague. A trained anthropologist with Dutch-Canadian ancestry, Peter learns that he’ll be assigned to the civil war in Mali. It’s a truly

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Richter’s War: Case of the Ghostly Séance, an Alt History Thriller by Daniel P. Douglas

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The Bottom Line:  An action-packed alt history thriller that succesfully blends LA noir and Nazi obsession with the supernatural.  In 1943 Los Angeles, private detective Geno Richter has been hired by the War Department to hunt down Nazi agents, spies and saboteurs. In this, author Daniel P. Douglas’ third book featuring Richter, he’s been assigned a new partner – attractive former Marine Corps nurse Anna

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The Doomsday Medallion, a Bewitching Political Thriller by Avanti Centrae

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The Bottom Line: An epic and bewitching mashup of historical suspense and political thriller. Perfect for fans of Steve Berry and James Rollins. Sixteenth-century French prophet Nostradamus is said to have predicted the Great Fire of London, the French Revolution, the rises of Napoleon and Adolf Hitler and both world wars. In Avanti Centrae’s The Doomsday Medallion, we learn that Nostradamus may have used a

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The Silver Waterfall, the Year’s Best Historical Thriller

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The Bottom Line: Honored in the Best Thriller Book Awards as the Best Historical Thriller of 2021. In the desolate middle of the largest ocean on earth, two great navies met, one bent on conclusive battle, the other lying in ambush. Six months after Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto again crossed the Pacific with the most powerful naval armada the world had ever seen, this time to

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Clochán, a Charming Historical Thriller by Lawrence P. O’Brien

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The Bottom Line: A vivid, gut-wrenching and charming historical thriller that captures a man’s coming of age in early 19th century Ireland. Set in the years surrounding the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the novel’s early chapters follow the plight of the Neal family as they attempt to survive an armed uprising against British rule and its subsequent backlash. Wartime is not kind to the Neal

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