Historical Fiction Stars - Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers and Crime Fiction: 2005

Lists of historical crime fiction titles receiving starred reviews.

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless otherwise noted.

Historical fiction is loosely defined on this page - a book set 25 years ago may qualify for inclusion.

• The Blood-Dimmed Tide
  Author: Airth, Rennie
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670899968 Date: 2005
  PW
  The author of the "New York Times" Notable Book River of Darknessreturns with a macabre tale of the social struggles of post-World War I Britain and the looming menace of Hitler's Germany. When a young girl is savagely murdered in rural English village, the crime catapults former Inspector John Madden into the grisly world of a brutal killer.
  Updated 6.20.05
• The Devil's Own Rag Doll
  Author: Bartoy, Mitchell
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312340885 Date: 2005
  LJ
  1940's Detroit: the war effort is in full swing and racial tensions are running high. When a vivacious white heiress is murdered in the black part of town, the city threatens to erupt into mob violence, bringing the factories to a grinding halt and imperiling Allied forces around the world. Newly minted Detective Pete Caudill is charged with covering up the crime in the interests of civic peace and finding some kind of justice for the dead girl. Odds are the girl was killed by her black boyfriend, but some whisper of an Axis plot to hamper America's war effort. Or is Detroit's shadowy political machine manipulating events to its own ruthless ends? As he delves deeper, Caudill soon learns the hard way that friends are rarely what they seem, family ties are often deceptive, and sometimes the bravest thing a man can do is think for himself. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Hard Boiled
  Updated 9.17.05
• Spectres in the Smoke: A Creeping Narrative
  Author: Broadbent, Tony
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312290268 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  In austere, post-World War II England, Jethro the cat burglar must again take on the mantle of spy for MI5 as he attempts to prevent a plot to undermine Britain's new Labour Government.
  Updated 9.17.05
• The Man from Beyond
  Author: Brownstein, Gabriel
  Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393051528 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrives in New York on a spiritualist crusade, defending the powers of the mysterious medium Margery. His good friend Harry Houdini is a skeptic, and when Doyle claims Margery's powers are superior to Houdini's, the magician goes on the attack.
  Suggested Reading: Elementary Stars | Magic & Magicians | Spiritualist Stars
  Updated 8.15.05
• Rogues' Game
  Author: Burton, Milton
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312336810 Date: 2005
  Booklist Kirkus
  With a wildcatting spirit--and set in a West Texas town in 1947-- The Rogues' Game is a high stakes novel and an exquisite quest for revenge.
  Updated 5.25.05
• Year of the Hyenas: A Novel of Murder in Ancient Egypt
  Author: Geagley, Brad
  Publisher: S & S $ 23 ISBN: 074325080X Date: 2005
  LJ
  In this evocative murder mystery set in ancient Egypt, an empire's sumptuous glory and intrigue blend seamlessly with timeless themes of greed, ambition, and crimes of passion.
  Suggested Reading: Egyptian Stars
  Updated 1.23.05
• The Serpent in the Garden
  Author: Gleeson, Janet
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 14 (trade paper) ISBN: 0743260058 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  With sure understanding of period detail and character of 18th-century England, the bestselling author of The Arcanum delivers a stunning and richly nuanced tale of greed, suspense, intrigue, and revenge.
  Updated 1.18.05
• Away With the Fairies
  Author: Greenwood, Kerry
  Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590580222 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  Searching for the murderer of a famous author, sexy, sassy Phryne goes undercover-and is up to her ears in fashion gossip and office politics.... Phryne Fisher is asked to investigate the puzzling death of a famous author and illustrator of fairy stories. To do so, she takes a job within the women's magazine that employed the victim and finds herself enmeshed in her colleagues' deceptions. But while Phryne is learning the ins and outs of magazine publishing first hand, her personal life is thrown into chaos. Impatient for her lover Lin Chung's imminent return from a silk-buying expedition to China, she instead receives an unusual summons from Lin Chung's family followed by a series of mysterious assaults and warnings. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 11.2.04
• Mosiac of Shadows
  Author: Harper, Tom
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312338678 Date: 2005
  PW
  In this thrilling historical drama set in medieval Constantinople, Demetrios the Apokalyptor is commissioned to investigate an assassination attempt on the Emperor's life -- before the assassin can strike again.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 5.16.05
• What Angels Fear
  Author: Harris, C.S.
  Publisher: NAL $ 23.95 ISBN: 0451216695 Date: 2005
  LJ
  A scholar of 19th-century Europe pens the debut of a historical suspense series "filled with suspense, intrigue, and plot twists galore" (Victoria Thompson, author of Murder on Lenox Hill).
  Updated 10.11.05
• Demon of the Air: An Aztec Mystery
  Author: Levack, Simon
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312348347 Date: 2005
  PW LJ
  In this gripping murder mystery, intrigue, drama, treachery and romance combine with historical fact and a potent imagination to bring life to the strange and brutal world of the Aztecs.- Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Aztec Stars
  Updated 9.17.05
• After the Armistice Ball
  Author: McPherson, Catriona
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 0786716088 Date: 2005
  PW
  Updated 7.18.05
• Cinnamon Kiss
  Author: Mosley, Walter
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0316073024 Date: 2005
  PW
  This "New York Times" bestselling author's sizzling new novel pits Easy Rawlins against his greatest challenge ever--a terrifying murder during the Summer of Love.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars
  Updated 7.11.05
• Painted Veil
  Author: Myers, Beverle Graves
  Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590581407 Date: 2005
  PW
  It's Venice, 1734--after being demoted to secondary roles due to neglecting his vocal practice in favor of dubious pleasures, castrato soprano Tito Amato jumps at the chance to reclaim his status by solving a murder case that threatens to close the opera house.
  Suggested Reading: Venice
  Updated 2.28.05
• Rebels of Babylon
  Author: Parry, Owen
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060513926 Date: 2005
  Kirkus
  Civil War detective Abel Jones investigates murder and theft in New Orleans in this dark and rich sixth installment in the Hammett and Herodotus award-winning series.
  Suggested Reading: New Orleans | Civil War Stars
  Updated 1.5.05
• The Serpent on the Crown
  Author: Peters, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060591781 Date: 2005
  PW
  Once again the incomparable "New York Times" bestselling master of suspense, Elizabeth Peters, brings an exotic world of adventure, intrigue, and danger to vivid life, in a tale as exciting, mysterious, and powerful as ancient Egypt.
  Suggested Reading: Egyptian Stars
  Updated 3.10.05
• The Mapmaker's Daughter
  Author: Pilkington, John
  Publisher: Severn $ 27.95 ISBN: 0727861603 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  Updated 1.18.05
• Rosa
  Author: Rabb, Jonathan
  Publisher: Crown $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400049210 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  From the bestselling author of The Overseer comes a riveting historical mystery about a German police inspector in post-World War I, post-Revolution Berlin, who stumbles upon the body of famed social activist Rosa Luxemburg and a conspiracy involving the highest levels of the new National Socialist government and the political police. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 12.6.04
• The Chariots of Calyx
  Author: Rowe, Rosemary
  Publisher: Headline $ 9.99 (paper) ISBN: 0747265194 Date: 2005
  PW LJ
  Libertus is in Londinium, at the invitation of the Roman Governor, when news arrives of the brutal murder of Caius Monnius, the city's chief corn-officer. Still reeling from the shock of catching sight of the wife he lost to slavery 20 years earlier, only to lose her again, the ever-inquisitive Libertus is, for once, uninterested in unmasking the murderer. But when the Roman Governor asks you to investigate...The dead man's mother is convinced that the truth behind the killing lies with Fortunatus, a celebrated charioteer with whom Monnius' wife was having an affair. But with the discovery of a second corpse, it soon becomes clear that this case is more complex--and more sinister--than anyone ever expected. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 8.22.05
• A Gladiator Dies Only Once: Gordianus the Finder
  Author: Saylor, Steven
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312271204 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  This is the second compilation of short pieces featuring Gordianus the Finder, filling in the gaps between the novels Roman Blood and Catilina's Riddle.
  Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 4.7.05
• This Dame for Hire
  Author: Scoppettone, Sandra
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 21.95 ISBN: 034547810x Date: 2005
  PW LJ
  Meet Faye Quick, a sassy secretary who reluctantly becomes a P.I. when her boss joins the Army. As it turns out, she catches on quickly and is especially adept at solving crimes she stumbles over--literally.
  Suggested Reading: P.I. Stars
  Updated 7.12.05
• Trance
  Author: Sorrrentino, Christopher
  Publisher: FSG $ 26 ISBN: 0374278644 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  Sorrentino's second novel traces the Symbionese Liberation Army in the mid-70s, leading the reader on a breathtaking, hilarious, and heartbreaking underground tour across a beleaguered America, in the company of scam artists, visionaries, cultists, and a mismatched gang of middle-class people who typify the guiding conceit of their time, that of self-renovation.
  Updated 6.20.05
• Cold Treachery
  Author: Todd, Charles
  Publisher: Bantam $ 25 ISBN: 0553803492 Date: 2005
  PW
  December, 1919: Deep in England's frozen Lake District, constables discover a scene of unimaginable carnage: the bodies of five family members splayed across a bloodied cottage kitchen. Somewhere amidst the peaks and valleys of this beautiful country lurks a murderer who considers so much spilt blood the least of his revenge.
  Updated 12.6.04
• Two Trains Running
  Author: Vachss, Andrew
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400043816 Date: 2005
  Kirkus
  In a thrilling departure, Vachss, the creator of the Burke novels, takes readers back to 1959 in this masterful crime novel that is also an epic story of postwar America.
  Updated 3.10.05
• Pardonable Lies: Maisie Dobbs
  Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
  Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805078975 Date: 2005
  LJ PW Booklist
  In the third novel of this bestselling series, London investigator Maisie Dobbs faces grave danger as she returns to the site of her most painful World War I memories to resolve the mystery of a pilot's death.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Historical Crime Fiction
  Updated 8.16.05