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.

Book Review – The Virgin of the Wind Rose: A Christopher Columbus Mystery-Thriller by Glen Craney

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The Bottom Line: An impeccably researched, high-velocity historical thriller that challenges everything you thought you knew about Christopher Columbus. When an American missionary is murdered in Africa, the victim’s fiancee embarks on a perilous investigation into his death. For Jaq Quartermane, an evangelical U.S. State Department attorney, the mission is both political and personal. The man Jaq was set to marry was killed while proselytizing […]

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Book Review: Fast Track To Glory, an Action Thriller by Tomasz Chrusciel

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The Bottom Line: An engrossing archeology thriller crafted in the tradition of Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. When 36-year-old religious history professor Nina Monte is summoned to Germany’s Heidelberg Castle, she becomes just the fifth living person to see images of a the Santa Lucia, a galley that sank during a battle in 1439. To her great surprise, Nina is asked to verify the authenticity

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Code Name Papa Book Cover

Book Review – Code Name: Papa: My Extraordinary Life while Hiding in Plain Sight

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The Bottom Line: This rollicking spy memoir reads like a political thriller and takes no prisoners along the way. Told in the first person, Code Name: Papa is the story of a covert operative who worked for various government agencies, including those in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. Beginning with Papa’s induction into the United States military in 1965, the book’s narrative globe trots through

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Echoes of November

Echoes of November, a Political Thriller by John Vance

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JFK researcher Mark Kemble becomes tangled in a violent series of events that eventually lead him to Dallas and a confrontation with the president’s assassin. Poll results from the past two decades demonstrate that nearly two-thirds of Americans, Canadians, and Europeans believe that John Kennedy was murdered as a result of a conspiracy in November of 1963. If true, could one of the assassins still

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Gallery Pieces by Larry Witham

Book Review – Gallery Pieces: An Art Mystery, by Larry Witham

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The Bottom Line: A thoroughly absorbing and masterfully crafted mystery about stolen art, family and greed. After a failed sting operation to nab Russian art smugglers in SoHo, a collection of curiously marked art catalogs is discovered. Julian Peale, the budding art sleuth at the heart of Gallery Pieces, finds himself immersed in a historically significant investigation that has gone unsolved for decades. As sleuths go, author

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nightengale kristin hannah

The Nightingale, a Historical Thriller by Kristin Hannah

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FRANCE, 1939 In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she

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Outlander Series - Written in my own hearts blood

Book Review: Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, by Diana Gabaldon

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The Bottom Line: The newest entry in the Outlander series is equal parts fresh, familiar and frenetic. A must for fans of the series. 1778: France declares war on Great Britain, the British army leaves Philadelphia, and George Washington’s troops leave Valley Forge in pursuit. At this moment, Jamie Fraser returns from a presumed watery grave to discover that his best friend has married his

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A Company of Roses by Meagan Goodenough

Book Review: A Company of Roses, a Historical Thriller by Megan Goodenough

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Bottom Line: A highly original historical scavenger hunt with roots in the Elizabethan period, this cozy mystery is highly recommended for Steve Berry fans. 1563, London. Lady Blanche ap Harry leads a band of thieves out of the palace and to a ferry waiting on the Themes. Their cargo? A box containing a “treasure” known as Elizabeth’s Rose. As in the best Steve Berry novels,

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Book Review: The Lost Prophet, a Religious Thriller by James B. McPike

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The Bottom Line: A well-researched and entertaining religious thriller set in the Holy Land. Recommended for fans of Joel C. Rosenberg. As the second installment in James B. McPike’s Vince Ramsey series opens, a tour group is heading ever deeper into Israel’s Tomb of the Prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. At last they come upon the burial chamber where an open sarcophagus – set behind

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The Einstein Prophecy book

The Einstein Prophecy, a Historical Thriller by Robert Masello

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As war rages in 1944, young army lieutenant Lucas Athan recovers a sarcophagus excavated from an Egyptian tomb. Shipped to Princeton University for study, the box contains mysteries that only Lucas, aided by brilliant archaeologist Simone Rashid, can unlock. These mysteries may, in fact, defy—or fulfill—the dire prophecies of Albert Einstein himself. Struggling to decipher the sarcophagus’s strange contents, Lucas and Simone unwittingly release forces

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