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20th Century Prewar Europe:Novels Set in Europe from 1900 to Before World War IFrom 1900 to 1914, tensions were simmering beneath a not-so-calm exterior. Across Europe, those without wealth or privilege grew impatient with the gulf between classes which relegated most to lives of poverty and servitude. Empires felt the strain. In Ireland, a nationalist movement for independence from England began developing.
Meanwhile, travel kept getting faster, easier and cheaper—though dramatic disasters like the sinking of the Titanic showed it was not always safer. Many who lived in poverty chose to emigrate in the hope of finding greater opportunity overseas. Among privileged classes, travel and exploration beckoned. Some exploration was inward: The Viennese doctor Sigmund Freud began developing his theories of psychology during this time. Novels in a series are listed under the category appropriate to the first novel in the series, regardless of whether the series continues beyond that time period. Jump to: Britain and Ireland before WWI Travelers, Explorers, Expatriates and Emigrants from Britain and Ireland before WWI Mysteries: Travelers, Explorers, Expatriates and Emigrants from Britain and Ireland before WWI Russia, its Empire and the Russian Revolution Mysteries: Russia, its Empire and the Russian Revolution Austria-Hungary and Eastern Europe before WWI Mysteries: Austria-Hungary and Eastern Europe before WWI Western Europe (the Continent) before WWI Mysteries: Western Europe (the Continent) before WWI
Britain and Ireland before WWI
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Kate Alcott, The Dressmaker (2013), about an aspiring seamstress hired to accompany the famous English designer Lucy Duff Gordon as her lady's maid when she travels on the Titanic. Diane Allen, For the Sake of Her Family (2012), about a girl and her brother in the Yorkshire Dales who go to work as servants at a manor in 1912 after their parents die. Kate Atkinson, Life After Life (2013), about a woman born in 1910 England who repeatedly has the chance to live again after dying. Review Jessica Blair, Tapestry of Dreams (2014), about two Yorkshire girls, one French-born, who grow up as friends and live through the challenges of two world wars. Mirko Bonne, The Ice-Cold Heaven (2013), about a stowaway on the 1914 Shackleton expedition to Antarctica. John Boyne, Crippen (2006), about the London physician who, in a sensational 1910 trial, was convicted of murdering his wife. Paula Brackston, The Midnight Witch (2014), about a duke's daughter in Edwardian England who is also a witch, engaged to a fellow witch but in love with an artist who is neither a witch nor an aristocrat. Barbara Taylor Bradford, Cavendon Hall (2014), a family saga about an earl and his family and the family of the valet who serves him, on the eve of World War I. Jessica Brockmole, Letters from Skye (2013), about a Scottish poet who begins corresponding with an America college student in 1912, and her daughter who finds a hidden cache of letters in their house in 1940.
T.J. Brown, A Bloom in Winter (2013), about three sisters in 1914 who strive, each in her own way, to escape the confining and undemocratic traditions of Edwardian England; #2 in the Summerset Abbey trilogy. Review T.J. Brown, Spring Awakening (2013), about three unconventionally raised sisters in England during the First World War; #3 in the Summerset Abbey trilogy.
Marita Conlon-McKenna, Rebel Sisters (2016), about three Dublin sisters and the roles they play in the 1916 Easter Rising.
Elizabeth Cooke, The Wild Dark Flowers (2014), about an aristocratic family in Yorkshire whose son joins the Royal Flying Corps at the beginning of World War I in 1915; #2 in the Rutherford Park series. Elizabeth Cooke, The Gates of Rutherford (2015), about a young woman from an aristocratic Yorkshire family who marries the blinded soldier she nursed back to health, only to question whether she is truly happy with her choice; #3 in the Rutherford Park series.
Catherine Cookson, Kate Hannigan's Girl (2000), about a free-spirited young woman in 1920s England who loves the boy next door but is courted by another, and is shocked to discover she is illegitimate; sequel to Kate Hannigan. Dilly Court, The Ragged Heiress (2010), about a young woman kidnapped from a London hospital where she is suffering from an illness and amnesia. Jill Dawson, The Great Lover (2009), a literary novel about the English poet Rupert Brooke. Rebecca Dean, The Golden Prince (2010), about a society girl who falls in love with Prince Edward VIII in the summer of 1911 when he is seventeen. Rebecca Dean, Enemies of the Heart (2008), about a young woman from Yorkshire who marries a German and moves to Berlin, but discovers his family is producing weapons for the German army as World War I looms. Margaret Dickinson, Forgive and Forget (2011), about a pretty thirteen-year-old who must care for her siblings after her parents are stricken with typhoid, and dreams of marrying one of her neighbors, a young policeman. Eilis Dillon, Across the Bitter Sea Eilis Dillon, Blood Relations Roddy Doyle, A Star Called Henry (1999), about a Dublin boy who joins the Irish Republican Army at fourteen and participates in the Easter Rising. Pamela Evans, The Tideway Girls (2009), about sisters separated when one becomes an unwed mother and stays in London to raise her child. Patricia Ferguson, The Midwife's Daughter (2012), about a midwife and her sister in a Cornish village who take in an orphaned black baby. Patricia Ferguson, Aren’t We Sisters? (2014), about three women in a small Cornish town in the early 1930s, where a killer is lurking; sequel to The Midwife's Daughter. Christine Mary Flemming, The Hydrangea Amongst the Weeds Susan Fletcher, House of Glass (2018), about a woman who takes on the job of supplying a private greenhouse in Gloucestershire in June 1914, and begins to sense that someone or something is walking through the house at night.
Ken Follett, Fall of Giants (2010), about families in England, Wales, Germany, Russia and America during the year before and during World War I; #1 in the Century trilogy. Ken Follett, Winter of the World (2012), about families in England, Wales, Germany, Russia and America beginning in 1933 as the Nazis rise to power in Germany; #2 in the Century trilogy. Ken Follett, Edge of Eternity (2014), about five intertwined American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh families in the 1960s-1980s; #3 in the Century trilogy.
Hazel Gaynor, The Girl Who Came Home (2014), about a seventeen-year-old Irish girl who travels to America on the Titanic, and her descendant in 1982 Chicago. Elizabeth Gill, Snow Hall (2010), about a woman in the north of England who in 1907 inherits a large, dilapidated manor house which she can't afford to keep up. Elizabeth Gill, Miss Appleby's Academy
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Restless Sea (2004), a family saga set in 1912 England; #27 in the Morland Dynasty series. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The White Road (2005), a family saga set in 1914 England as the First World War breaks out; #28 in the Morland Dynasty series. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Burning Roses (2006), a family saga set in 1915 England as the First World War drags on; #29 in the Morland Dynasty series. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Measure of Days (2007), a family saga set in 1916 England as conscription forces more men to war; #30 in the Morland Dynasty series. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Foreign Field (2008), a family saga set in 1917 England during World War I; #31 in the Morland Dynasty series. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Fallen Kings (2009), a family saga set in 1918 England as the British are forced to retreat before the advancing Germans; #32 in the Morland Dynasty series. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Dancing Years (2010), a family saga set in 1919 England in the aftermath of World War I; #33 in the Morland Dynasty series. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Winding Road (2011), a family saga set in 1925 England during the Jazz Age; #34 in the Morland Dynasty series. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Phoenix (2013), a family saga set in England from 1931 to 1936 as the family struggles to save themselves from ruin during the Depression; #35 in the Morland Dynasty series.
Clarissa Harwood, Bear No Malice (2018), a love story about a clergyman with guilty secrets and a vulnerable woman who lives in seclusion with her brother. Review Thomas Hayden, The Killing Frost Amanda Hodgkinson, Spilt Milk (2014), a family saga about two unmarried sisters in Suffolk who fall in love with the same man in 1913, the daughter of one of the sisters in 1939, and the next generation in the 1960s. Review at The Independent Anna Hope, The Ballroom (2016), about a woman confined to a Yorkshire asylum in 1911, where she falls in love with a male inmate. Rebecca Hunt, Everland (2014), about three modern-day English researchers who travel to Antarctica and three Antarctic explorers in 1913. Anna Jacobs, Cherry Tree Lane (2011), historical romance about a girl from Wiltshire who runs away from home in 1910 after her stepfather tries to force her into a marriage she doesn't want. Mary Pat Kelly, Of Irish Blood (2015), about a young Irish American woman who, to escape a violent lover, flees to Europe in 1903 as Ireland begins its struggle for independence. Catherine King, The Secret Daughter Catherine King, A Sister’s Courage (2013), about a young woman who, after her parents die, becomes a maidservant for two suffragettes from Yorkshire campaigning in London. Judith Kinghorn, The Last Summer (2013), about an aristocratic young woman who falls in love with the son of her family's housekeeper on the eve of World War I. Judith Kinghorn, The Memory of Lost Senses (2014), about a young woman who aspires to become a writer, and a countess with a tragic past who moves into the country house next door with her novelist friend and her grandson in 1911. Mario Vargas Llosa, The Dream of the Celt (2012), about the Irish nationalist Roger Casement, who in 1916 was hanged by the British government for treason. Elizabeth Lord, To Cast a Stone (2008), about two London sisters who are taken in by a kindly doctor after their mother dies and their alcoholic father abandons them. Elizabeth Lord, Illusions of Happiness (2013), about a young woman who, after returning from her finishing school in 1914, falls in love with a milkman instead of the wealthy man her family wants her to marry. Sarah Maine, The House Between Tides (2016), about a woman of the present day who travels to her family's old mansion in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, where she uncovers human bones beneath a floorboard and begins researching the life of a woman who lived there a century earlier.
Beryl Matthews, Wings of the Morning Beryl Matthews, A Time of Peace Beryl Matthews, A Flight of Golden Wings Beryl Matthews, The Forgotten Family
Maisie Mosco, Scattered Seed Maisie Mosco, Children's Children
Marina Julia Neary, Brendan Malone: The Last Fenian Marina Julia Neary, Martyrs and Traitors Joseph O’Connor, Ghost Light (2011), about an actress in London during the 1950s who recalls her youth in Dublin, when she joined a theater ensemble in 1907 at age eighteen and fell in love with a brilliant but distant playwright.
Pamela Oldfield, The Penningtons (2010), about a young housemaid in 1902 Bath who, suddenly entrusted with the responsibility of caring for a bedridden aristocrat after the housekeeper resigns, discovers there are dark secrets in her employer's past. Pamela Oldfield, The Great Betrayal
Priya Parmar, Vanessa and her Sister (2015), about Vanessa Bell and her sister Virginia Woolf as young women and members of the "Bloomsbury Group" in 1905 London. Lesley Pearse, Belle (2011), about a fifteen-year-old innocent who has grown up in a Seven Dials brothel and must migrate to New Orleans after she is sold into prostitution in Paris. Niki Phillips, The Liffey Flows On By (2012), about four generations of a wealthy Irish family and their estate staff, beginning in the early 1900s. James Plunkett, Strumpet City (1969), about the "Dublin Lockout," an Irish trade union struggle in 1913. Dominic Prince, Thrown Anthony Quinn, Half of the Human Race (2011), about a woman and a cricket player whose love for each other is challenged by her participation in the women's suffrage movement. Kate Riordan, Fiercombe Manor (2015), about a young unmarried pregnant woman who goes to stay in an eerie old manor house in 1933, and the pregnant lady of the manor who lived there thirty years before. Lucinda Riley, The Girl on the Cliff (2011), about a present-day New York woman who returns to Ireland and the girl she meets from a family whose history is connected with her own, dating back to a secret from 1914. Amy Sackville, The Still Point (2010), about an ill-fated arctic explorer at the turn of the twentieth century and his unhappily married present-day great-grand-niece, who inherits the house that was once his along with the archives it contains.
Jane Sanderson, Ravenscliffe (2012), about a Yorkshire woman from a working-class background who moves into a local villa with her children; #2 in the Netherwood series. Jane Sanderson, Eden Falls (2013), about a Jamaican hotel owner, an unhappily married couple in London, and their families; #3 in the Netherwood series.
Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt, Dracula: The Un-Dead (2009), about the son of a victim of Dracula who travels to London, stumbles across a play about Dracula directed by Dracula author Bram Stoker and is plunged once again into his parents' nightmare, as a wave of mysterious and gruesome deaths stikes the city; sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, written by Stoker's great-grandnephew. June Tate, The Girl From The Dockland Café (2018), about a young woman in Southampton, England, in 1912 who takes over the management of the café she works in, and faces challenges ranging from gang bosses to embezzlement. Annie Thomas, A Woman's Choice Liz Trenow, The Forgotten Seamstress Katherine Webb, The Unseen (2011), about a vicar and his wife whose lives are disrupted in 1911 by an unscrupulous new maid and a man researching occult tales about the local water meadows. Ann Weisgarber, The Promise (2013), about about a young pianist who returns home in 1900 after a scandal and agrees to marry her widowed childhood admirer. James Wilson, The Woman in the Picture Robert Wilton, The Spider of Sarajevo (2014), about a British official and the four spies he recruits during the summer of 1914 to hunt down an enemy spy known only as "the Spider."
Mysteries: Britain and Ireland Before WWI
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Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Holly How (2005), a mystery featuring children's book author Beatrix Potter investigating a man's fatal fall from a cliff and the disappearance of a mother badger and her cubs; #2 in the Cottage Tales series. Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood (2006), a mystery featuring children's book author Beatrix Potter solving problems caused by rats, cats, and a developer planning to ruin the lake's pristine shoreline; #3 in the Cottage Tales series. Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Hawthorn House (2007), a mystery featuring children's book author Beatrix Potter investigating who left a baby on her doorstep and why, as well as the alarming disappearance of Jemima Puddleduck; #4 in the Cottage Tales series. Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Briar Bank (2008), a mystery featuring children's book author Beatrix Potter investigating an antiquarian's death by falling tree as Christmas approaches; #5 in the Cottage Tales series. Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Applebeck Orchard (2009), a mystery featuring children's book author Beatrix Potter investigating a case of suspected arson involving a crotchety neighbor's haystacks; #6 in the Cottage Tales series. Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Oat Cake Crag (2010), a mystery featuring children's book author Beatrix Potter investigating a hydroplane mishap in 1911; #6 in the Cottage Tales series. Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Castle Cottage (2011), a mystery featuring children's book author Beatrix Potter having trouble with the remodeling of her cottage as she looks forward to marrying her fiance despite her parents' opposition; #7 and last in the Beatrix Potter mystery series.
Tessa Arlen, Death Sits Down to Dinner (2016), about an upper class London woman and her housekeeper who investigate the murder of a gentleman at a dinner party celebrating Winston Churchill's 39th birthday; #2 in the Lady Montfort mystery series.
M.C. Beaton, Hasty Death (2010 reissue; originally published 2004 under the author's real name, Marion Chesney), about a young aristocrat who rebels to become a working woman only to find it boring drudgery until an acquaintance of hers is murdered and she decides to investigate; #2 in the Edwardian Mystery series. M.C. Beaton, Sick of Shadows (2010 reissue; originally published 2005 under the author's real name, Marion Chesney), about a young woman who pretends to be engaged so she can avoid being sent to India, and must summon her supposed fiancé ot help her investigate after a new friend of hers is found drowned and she suspects foul play; #3 in the Edwardian Mystery series. M.C. Beaton, Our Lady of Pain (2010 reissue; originally published 2006 under the author's real name, Marion Chesney), about a young woman suspected of murdering her supposed fiancé's seductive French client; #4 in the Edwardian Mystery series.
John Dickson Carr, The Ghost's High Noon Mitch Cullin, A Slight Trick of the Mind (2005), a novel which imagines the 93-year-old, long-retired detective Sherlock Holmes in 1947 as he writes an article about an old case relating to a woman musician who played the glass armonica. D.E. Ireland, Wouldn’t It Be Deadly (2014), a mystery in which the main characters from "My Fair Lady" try to clear the professor's name after his rival is murdered; #1 in the new Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins mystery series.
Laurie R. King, A Monstrous Regiment of Women (1995), about a young woman who assists Sherlock Holmes and her encounter with an advocate of women's suffrage in 1920; #2 in the Mary Russell series. Laurie R. King, A Letter of Mary (1996), about a young woman who assists Sherlock Holmes and her discovery of an astonishing first century manuscript in 1923; #3 in the Mary Russell series. Laurie R. King, The Moor (1998), about about a young woman who assists Sherlock Holmes and her experience with a mysterious nighttime apparition on Dartmoor in 1923; #4 in the Mary Russell series. Laurie R. King, O Jerusalem (1999), about a young woman's efforts to assist Sherlock Homes with Middle East espionage work at the close of World War I; #5 in the Mary Russell series. Laurie R. King, Justice Hall (2002), about about a young woman who assists Sherlock Holmes and her encounter with old friends from the Middle East; #6 in the Mary Russell series. Laurie R. King, The Game (2004), about a young woman's efforts to assist Sherlock Holmes in tracking down a missing British spy in India; #7 in the Mary Russell series. Laurie R. King, Locked Rooms (2005), about a young woman's encounter with her own past during a visit to San Francisco with Sherlock Holmes; #8 in the Mary Russell series. Laurie R. King, The Language of Bees (2009), about a woman sleuth whose May-December marriage to Sherlock Holmes is threatened when his estranged son seeks their help; #9 in the Mary Russell series. Review Laurie R. King, The God of the Hive (2010), about Sherlock Holmes's wife, on the run from a killer and trying to protect Sherlock's young granddaughter, as she and her husband try to make their way back to each other; #10 in the Mary Russell series, and a continuation of the story begun in The Language of Bees. Laurie R. King, Pirate King (2011), about a woman sleuth who makes an undercover trip to Portugal to investigate rumors of crimes connected with a silent-film studio about to produce a pirate movie; #11 in the Mary Russell series. Laurie R. King, Garment of Shadows (2012), about a woman sleuth who wakes up in Morocco with no memory of how she got there; #12 in the Mary Russell series. Laurie R. King, Dreaming Spies (2015), about the wife of Sherlock Holmes and their trip to Japan, where a rare vacation is interrupted by the need to investigate a case of espionage; #13 in the Mary Russell series. Laurie R. King, The Marriage of Mary Russell (2016), an out-of-sequence short story about the wedding of Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell and the obstacles to it that arise; an unnumbered entry in the Mary Russell mystery series. Laurie R. King, The Murder of Mary Russell (2016), a mystery focusing on the ominous disappearance of the central series character, Mary Russell; #14 in the Mary Russell mystery series. Laurie R. King, Island of the Mad (2018), about the wife of Sherlock Holmes and her efforts to help her husband track down a woman who has disappeared from the Bedlam asylum; #15 in the Mary Russell mystery series.
Kate Kingsbury, Do Not Disturb Kate Kingsbury, Service for Two Kate Kingsbury, Eat, Drink and Be Buried Kate Kingsbury, Check-Out Time (1995), a cozy mystery about a woman who owns a seaside hotel in Edwardian England whose business is threatened by a case of murder; #5 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series. Kate Kingsbury, Grounds for Murder Kate Kingsbury, Pay the Piper Kate Kingsbury, Chivalry Is Dead Kate Kingsbury, Ring for Tomb Service (1997), a cozy mystery about a woman who owns a seaside hotel in Edwardian England whose business is threatened by a case of murder duirng the St. Bartholomew's Week festivities; #9 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series. Kate Kingsbury, Death With Reservations Kate Kingsbury, Dying Room Only Kate Kingsbury, Maid to Murder Kate Kingsbury, No Clue at the Inn (2003), a cozy mystery about a couple who return to the hotel they used to own to manage it during the Christmas season and discover the previous manager met an unfortunate end; #13 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series. Kate Kingsbury, Slay Bells (2006), a cozy mystery about a woman hotelier in Edwardian England who finds that Father Christmas has been murdered during a holiday party; #14 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series. Kate Kingsbury, Shrouds of Holly (2007), a cozy mystery about a woman hotelier in Edwardian England who finds a body among the holly delivered to decorate the ballroom for a Christmas reception; #15 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series. Kate Kingsbury, Ringing in Murder (2008), a cozy mystery featuring the lady of an English manor hotel whose holiday celebration goes awry when one of her Christmas crackers seems to be implicated in the deaths of two of her guests; #16 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series. Kate Kingsbury, Decked With Folly (2009), a cozy mystery featuring the lady of an English manor hotel whose Christmas preparations are disrupted when the body of a former employee is found in the hotel's duckpond; #17 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series. Kate Kingsbury, Mistletoe and Mayhem (2010), a cozy mystery featuring the proprietress of an English manor hotel who must find out who killed the footman and maid seen kissing under the mistletoe; #18 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series. Kate Kingsbury, Herald of Death (2011), about the proprietress of an English manor hotel whose Christmas season is marred by a murderer who adorns his victims with gold angels; #19 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series. Kate Kingsbury, The Clue is in the Pudding (2012), about the proprietress of an English manor hotel whose Christmas is upset by the death of a guest after a recently hired temporary housekeeper serves him some plum pudding; #20 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series.
H.B. Lyle, The Red Ribbon (2018), about an ex-soldier whose effort to track down high-profile leaks from the government leads him to an embassy in Belgravia where a former fellow member of the "Baker Street Irregulars" is using the embassy as a front for an illegal enterprise.
Andrew Martin, The Blackpool Highflier (2004), a thriller about a British railway employee whose assignment in a resort town proves to be no holiday; #2 in the Jim Stringer mystery series. Andrew Martin, The Lost Luggage Porter (2006), a thriller about a British railway employee newly promoted to detective and posted in York; #3 in the Jim Stringer mystery series. Andrew Martin, Murder at Deviation Junction (2007), a thriller about a British railway detective investigating a murder discovered after a train hits a snow drift; #4 in the Jim Stringer mystery series. Andrew Martin, Death on a Branch Line Andrew Martin, The Last Train to Scarborough (2009), a thriller about a British railway detective sent to the Paradise lodging house in Scarborough to find out what happened to a missing railwayman; #6 in the Jim Stringer mystery series. Review from The Guardian Andrew Martin, The Somme Stations (2011), a thriller about a British railway detective, now fighting in the trenches during World War I, who faces as much danger from his fellow soldiers as from the Germans after evidence emerges of an enemy within the ranks; #7 in the Jim Stringer mystery series. Andrew Martin, The Baghdad Railway Club (2012), about a British soldier, once a railway detective, sent to Baghdad in 1917 to investigate a possible case of treason; #8 in the Jim Stringer mystery series. Andrew Martin, Night Train to Jamalpur
Pamela Oldfield, The Boat House (1999), about a governess in a wealthy household in Henley-on-Thames in 1912 who begins to wonder why the children are not allowed to go near the boat house. Chris Paling, Nimrod’s Shadow (2011), about a London artist of the early twentieth century wrongly convicted of murdering an art critic, and the young woman of the present day who discovers the artist's paintings and decides to find out who really killed the critic. Review at the Guardian Lucy Ribchester, The Hourglass Factory (2016), about a young woman journalist and a Scotland Yard detective who team up to investigate the disappearance of a trapeze artist amid a time of suffrage demonstrations in 1912 London. Catherine Shaw, Fatal Inheritance (2013), about a woman detective hired to investigate the apparent suicide of a gifted violinist on New Year's Day 1900. Elizabeth Speller, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton (2012), about a veteran of World War I who visits Wiltshire in 1924 to view an unusual church and ends up investigating the 1911 disappearance of a child.
Tim Symonds, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Bulgarian Codex Tim Symonds, Sherlock Holmes and The Mystery of Einstein's Daughter
Felicity Young, The Anatomy of Death (2012), about England's first female autopsy surgeon and her investigation of the murder of a suffragette in 1910; #1 in the Doctor Dody McCleland mystery series. Review at Publisher's Weekly Felicity Young, Antidote to Murder (2013), about a woman autopsy surgeon in 1911 London whose charitable work at a women's clinic leads to her being accused of murder after one of her patients dies of a botched abortion; #2 in the Doctor Dody McCleland mystery series. Travelers, Explorers, Expatriates and Emigrants
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Beryl Bainbridge, The Birthday Boys (1994), about Robert Falcon Scott's doomed 1910 expedition to the South Pole. Leah Fleming, The Captain's Daughter (2012), about a woman who travels to the U.S. on the Titanic, losing her husband when it sinks and accepting a rescued baby in the belief it is her own. Alexander Fullerton, Wave Cry Kare Holt, The Race: A Novel of Polar Exploration Christian Jacq, The Tutankamen Affair Albert Sanchez Pinol, Pandora in the Congo (2008), about a young London pulp novel writer hired to write the story of a 1914 expedition to the Congo from which only one man returns, in order to save him from being condemned on a murder charge. Jennifer Potter, The Long Lost Journey (1989), about a British woman archaeologist searching for information about the Queen of Sheba in 1911 Yemen and the unscrupulous Scot who becomes her traveling companion and lover. Imogen Robertson, The Paris Winter (2013), about a young London woman studying art in 1909 Paris who accepts a job that brings her into terrible danger. Review at The Independent Robert Ryan, Death on the Ice (2009), about Robert Falcon Scott's doomed Antarctic expedition in 1910. Review Dan Simmons, The Terror Barry Unsworth, The Rage of the Vulture (1982), a literary novel about an Englishman posted in Istanbul who sets out to avenge the death of his former fiancee in the Armenian genocide twelve years before. Oswald Wynd, The Ginger Tree (1977), about a young Scotswoman who travels to Peking in 1903, where she marries an British officer, and then has an affair with a samurai whom she follows to Japan.
Mysteries: Travelers, Explorers, Expatriates and Emigrants
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Conrad Allen, Murder on the Mauretania Conrad Allen, Murder on the Minnesota Conrad Allen, Murder on the Caronia Conrad Allen, Murder on the Marmora Conrad Allen, Murder on the Salsette Conrad Allen, Murder on the Oceanic Conrad Allen, Murder on the Celtic
Barbara Cleverly, Ragtime in Simla (2002), about a British officer who discovers a trail of murders in Simla, the summer capital of the British in India; #2 in the Detective Joe Sandilands mystery series. Barbara Cleverly, The Damascened Blade (2003), about a British officer investigating murder on the Afghan border; #3 in the Detective Joe Sandilands mystery series. Barbara Cleverly, The Palace Tiger (2004), about a Scotland Yard detective who joins a hunting party trying to catch and kill a man-eating tiger in Ranipur; #4 in the Detective Joe Sandilands mystery series. Barbara Cleverly, The Bee's Kiss (2005), about a Scotland Yard detective recently returned from India who must investigate the murder of an aristocratic London woman in 1926; #5 in the Detective Joe Sandilands mystery series. Barbara Cleverly, Tug of War (2006), about a Scotland Yard detective sent to France to determine the identity of a shell-shocked soldier, an investigation that uncovers a case of murder committed during World War I; #6 in the Detective Joe Sandilands mystery series. Barbara Cleverly, Folly Du Jour (2007), about a Scotland Yard detective trying to clear the name of a friend who has been arrested for murder in Paris; #7 in the Detective Joe Sandilands mystery series. Barbara Cleverly, Strange Images of Death (2010), about a Scotland Yard detective who stays on at a French chateau with his teenaged niece, in order to protect her and investigate a violent crime that may have its roots in a sixth-century murder; #8 in the Detective Joe Sandilands mystery series. Barbara Cleverly, The Blood Royal (2011), about a Scotland Yard detective who must find out whether a young Russian woman is a victim of tragedy or a murderous spy; #9 in the Detective Joe Sandilands mystery series.
Michael Pearce, A Dead Man in Istanbul Michael Pearce, A Dead Man in Athens Michael Pearce, A Dead Man in Tangier (2007), about a Scotland Yard inspector sent to Tangier to investigate the death of a Frenchman; #4 in the Seymour of Special Branch mystery series. Michael Pearce, A Dead Man in Barcelona Michael Pearce, A Dead Man in Naples (2009), about a Scotland Yard inspector sent to Naples to investigate the death of an unsatisfactory British diplomat; #6 in the Seymour of Special Branch mystery series. (For Michael Pearce's "Mamur Zapt" mystery series, about a British official in Egypt, see the Egypt section on the Africa page.)
Russia, its Empire and the Russian Revolution
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Robert Alexander, Rasputin's Daughter (2006), about the notorious Rasputin and his relationship with the czar's family, as told by Rasputin's daughter. Robert Alexander, The Romanov Bride (2008), about the Grand Duchess Elizavyeta and a Russian peasant involved in her husband’s assassination during the upheavals of the Russian Revolution. Vanora Bennett, Midnight in St. Petersburg (2013), about a young woman who flees pogroms in Kiev in 1911 and goes to St. Petersburg, where she becomes the apprentice of a violin maker and finds herself attracted to two very different men. Review at the "Seeing Reading Thinking Writing" blog John Boyne, The House of Special Purpose (2009), about a man who, while visiting his dying wife in the hospital, recalls how his youthful service as a bodyguard for the last tsar set the course of his life. Helen Dunmore, House of Orphans (2006), a love story about the orphaned daughter of a revolutionary in 1901 Finland, when it was still part of the Russian Empire. Carolly Erickson, The Tsarina's Daughter (2008), about Tatiana, the second daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra, the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. Colin Falconer, Anastasia Kate Furnivall, The Jewel of St. Petersburg (2010), about an aristocratic young Russian woman whose affair with a Danish engineer causes a scandal in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution. Catherine Gavin, The Snow Mountain (1973), about Olga, the Russian czar's eldest daughter, and her secret love for a soldier during the Russian Revolution. Thomas Keneally, The People's Train Jennifer Laam, The Secret Daughter of the Tsar (2013), about a servant girl in the Russian court in 1902, a former ballerina in occupied Paris during World War II and an aspiring historian in present-day Los Angeles, and the connections that link their stories. Vanessa Manko, The Invention of Exile (2014), about a Russian exile who becomes separated from his family after he is wrongly accused of attending anarchist meetings. William Burton McCormick, Lenin's Harem Simon Montefiore, Sashenka (2008), about a modern Jewish graduate student who, while researching the story of a Russian official's mysterious past, discovers the story of a privileged Jewish woman who played an important role in the Revolution before being consumed by tragedy. Stephanie Plowman, Three Lives for the Czar Stephanie Plowman, My Kingdom for a Grave Adrienne Sharp, The True Memoirs of Little K (2010), about Mathilde Kschessinska, a ballerina with the Russian Imperial Ballet who was Tsar Nicholas II's mistress before the Revolution. Review or Author Interview Susan Sherman, The Little Russian (2012), about a Jewish woman from the Ukraine and her struggle to survive during and after the Russian Revolution. Review
Mysteries: Russia, its Empire and the Russian Revolution
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James Fleming, White Blood (2006), a thriller about a naturalist, raised by an English father and a Russian mother, who is caught in Russia when the Revolution begins; #1 in the Charlie Doig series. James Fleming, Cold Blood (2009), a thriller about a man raised by an English father and a Russian mother, on a mission of revenge in Revolutionary Russia; #1 in the Charlie Doig series. James Fleming, Rising Blood (2011), a thriller about a man of English and Russian blood who hides a cache of Lenin's gold and tries to escape eastward to the Pacific after Lenin seizes power in Moscow; #3 in the Charlie Doig series. David Shone, Crimson Snow Austria-Hungary and Eastern Europe before WWI
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Miklos Bánffy, They Were Counted Miklos Bánffy, They Were Found Wanting (1937), as the great powers of Europe make decisions that move them closer to a world war, a wealthy young Transylvanian must part from his lover, while his cousin lives recklessly; about events during the author's lifetime, so technically not historical fiction; #2 in the Transylvanian trilogy, The Writing on the Wall. Miklos Bánffy, They Were Divided (1940), as Hungarian youth march to war in the aftermath of Franz Ferdinand's assassination, two cousins see their world of aristocratic privilege unraveling; about events during the author's lifetime, so technically not historical fiction; #3 in the Transylvanian trilogy, The Writing on the Wall. Michael Andre Bernstein, Conspirators (2004), about politics and corruption in the upper class Jewish and Gentile communities in a Galacian town during the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Rosina Lippi, Homestead (1999), about the lives of women in an Austrian village from 1907 to 1977. Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities (originally published in German in three volumes, 1930-1942), an intellectual novel about the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the First World War; about events during the author's lifetime, so technically not historical fiction. Diane Pearson, Csardas G.G. Vandagriff, The Last Waltz (2009), about a Viennese woman's search for love before, during and between the world wars. Review and Author Interview
Mysteries: Austria-Hungary and Eastern Europe before WWI
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Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project (2008), about two Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in Chicago, one a 21st century writer investigating the shooting of the other in 1908 by a policeman.
Frank Tallis, Vienna Blood (2006), about a Viennese psychoanalyst and disciple of Freud who helps his detective friend find a serial killer; #2 in the Liebermann Papers series. Frank Tallis, Fatal Lies (2008), about a Viennese psychoanalyst and disciple of Freud who helps his detective friend investigate the sadistic murder of a young cadet in a military school; #3 in the Liebermann Papers series. Frank Tallis, Darkness Rising (2009); about a Viennese psychoanalyst and disciple of Freud who helps his detective friend investigate the murders of a monk and a city official that are being blamed on Vienna's Jews; #4 in the Liebermann Papers series. Frank Tallis, Vienna Twilight (2010; titled Deadly Communion in the U.K.), about a Viennese psychoanalyst and his detective friend trying to solve a series of murders of young women by a killer who uses a hatpin; #5 in the Liebermann Papers series. Review at Eurocrime Frank Tallis, Death and the Maiden (2012), about a Viennese psychoanalyst and his detective friend investigating the death of a diva at the Vienna Opera, as its director, Gustav Mahler, copes with a rash of poison pen letters; #6 in the Max Lieberman Mystery series. Frank Tallis, Mephisto Waltz (2012), about a Viennese psychoanalyst and his detective friend investigating an execution-style murder in an abandoned piano factory; #7 in the Max Lieberman Mystery series. Review
Western Europe (the Continent) before WWI
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L.E. Butler, Relief (2008), about a Boston widow pursuing a painting career who has an affair with a ballet-girl in 1912 Venice. Review Martin Caparros, Valfierno: The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa (2008), about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. M. Allen Cunningham, Lost Son (2007), about the young German poet Rainer Maria Rilke in 1902, when he travels to Paris to write a study of the sculptor Auguste Rodin and experiences a personal crisis. Marcello Fois, Bloodlines Susanna Kearsley, Season of Storms (2001), about an actress who agrees to star in the first performance of a play written for an unrelated woman who shares her name but disappeared mysteriously the night before she was to play the lead role. Rosalind Laker, The Fortuny Gown Pam Lewis, A Young Wife Alan Lightman, Einstein’s Dreams (1993), short stories which imagine a series of dreams Albert Einstein might have had as he was beginning to develop his relativity theory in 1905, in which he dreams that time does odd things. Henning Mankell, A Treacherous Paradise (2013), about a Swedish woman who emigrates to Australia in 1904 at age nineteen to escape poverty, and soon afterward to Portuguese East Africa, where she becomes a brothel owner. Yann Martel, The High Mountains of Portugal (2016), about a man in Lisbon who discovers an old journal that hints at the existence of an extraordinary artifact and sets out on a quest for it that people will pursue for another century. Mona Rodriguez, Forty Years in a Day (2013), about an Italian woman who takes her four children to America to escape her abusive husband, where she struggles with poverty and organized crime. Julie K. Rose, Oleanna Pamela Schoenewaldt, Swimming in the Moon (2013), about a hot-tempered Italian mother and her daughter who lose their work as servants in Naples in 1905 and emigrate to America. Philip Sington, The Einstein Girl (2009), about a psychiatrist in Berlin in the early 1930s trying to find out the identity of a girl with amnesia who was found near a handbill advertising a lecture by Albert Einstein. Natasha Solomons, House of Gold (2018), about a Jewish heiress who leaves Vienna in 1911 to marry a distant cousin in England, and the garden that changes her life. Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker’s Wife (2012), about a young Italian couple in love who are separated in the years before World War I when he emigrates to the U.S. Beatriz Williams, The Secret Life of Violet Grant (2014), about a Bryn Mawr graduate in 1964 Manhattan who receives an unexpected package that draws her into the scandalous story of her aunt's love affair in 1914 Germany.
Mysteries: Western Europe (the Continent) before WWI
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Jane Jakeman, In The City of Dark Waters Top of Page
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The first violent outbreaks of the Russian Revolution began in 1905 and came to a head in 1917, culminating with the murder of the Tsar and his family. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, ruled from glittering Vienna by members of the Hapsburg Dynasty, did not formally dissolve until 1918, but nationalist sentiments among the Serbs and other ethnic groups within the Empire resulted in the 1914 assassination of the Hapsburg heir Franz Ferdinand, a spark that blazed into the First World War.
(1973), about the Irish war for independence in 1916-1920.
(1978), set in 1851; prequel to Across the Bitter Sea.
(2011), about an English girl and the spirits of her dead twin sisters before, during and after the world wars; self-published.
(2013), about an American woman who sets up a school in a Yorkshire village where she must contend with hostility from the villagers, who don't approve of a single woman with a child.
(1991), about the son of an Irish tenant farmer who wants revenge and a British intelligence officer trying to quash the IRA during the years leading up to World War I.
(2012), about a young English woman working as a lady's maid to an American heiress, who joins her mistress aboard the Titanic.
(2002), about a London slum girl determined to find a better life; #1 in the Webster Family trilogy.
(2003), about a young woman from a close family who joins the WAAF after her brothers and sweetheart enlist in the military; #2 in the Webster Family trilogy.
(2004), about a young woman in 1961 who struggles with a difficult boss and wonders whether she made the right choice in taking a job as photographer for a newspaper; #3 in the Webster Family trilogy.
(2007), about a young woman pilot in the Air Transport Auxiliary who falls in love with an American serviceman who is later reported missing in action.
(2006), about a girl raised in a large country house who sets out to find her original family after she learns she was taken from their slum home at age two.
(1979), about two Russian Jewish immigrant families in Manchester from 1905 through the First World War and into the Depression years; #1 in the Almonds and Raisins trilogy.
(1980), about two Russian Jewish immigrant families in Manchester during the years of Hitler's rise, when many of the English anti-Semites sympathized with the Nazis; #2 in the Almonds and Raisins trilogy.
(1986), about the third generation of two Jewish families in Manchester, as they begin to drift away from Judaism; #3 in the Almonds and Raisins trilogy.
(2011), about a Gaelic landlord and secret IRA member in Roscommon, Ireland, beginning in 1910, and his conflicts with his two sons.
(2011), about the 1916 Easter Uprising in Ireland.
(2011), about a woman in 1904 London whose husband is often absent because of the secret work he does for the government.
(2014), about a stable boy and a suffragette who change history during the Derby Day horse races of 1913.
(2013), about an English woman who emigrates to New York in 1901.
(2014), about a shy young seamstress who catches the eye of the Prince of Wales in 1910, and a woman of the present day who discovers a quilt in her mother's attic and sets out to discover the secrets behind the quilt.
(1994), a cozy mystery about a woman who owns a seaside hotel in Edwardian England whose business is threatened by a case of murder; #2 in the Pennyfoot Hotel series.
(2013), about a railway detective working in India in 1923 and contending with a shooting death, king cobras, and his daughter's connection with a maharajah's son; #9 in the Jim Stringer mystery series. 
(2012), a Sherlock Holmes mystery in which a dead body turns up after Holmes and Watson make a presentation to the Kipling League in 1904.
(2012), a Sherlock Holmes mystery in which Holmes and Watson travel to Bulgaria in 1900 to try to find a missing sacred manuscript.
(2104), a Sherlock Holmes mystery set in 1903 in which Holmes and Watson investigate the background of a woman who may be the illegitimate daughter of Albert Einstein.
(1976), about the 1911-1912 struggle between Englishman Robert Scott and Norwegian Roald Amundsen to reach the South Pole first. 
(2003), about the discovery of Tutankamen's tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, and the tomb's mysterious curse.
(2006), a Gothic thriller about Sir John Franklin’s 1845 Arctic expedition.
(2000), about a private detective for the Cunard Line traveling incognito on the Lusitania in 1907 and investigating a series of thefts when a murder occurs; #1 in the Shipboard mystery series. 
(2000), about a private detective for the Cunard Line and his female friend who investigate murder on a ship carrying a huge shipment of gold bullion; #2 in the Shipboard mystery series. 
(2002), about a private detective and his female friend who investigate murder on a ship traveling to the Far East; #3 in the Shipboard mystery series. 
(2003), about a private detective and his female friend who suspect the prisoners being transported on the ship, lovers accused of murdering the woman's husband, are innocent; #4 in the Shipboard mystery series. 
(2004), about a private detective and his female friend who work undercover to protect the Duke and Duchess of Fife on their voyage to Egypt; #5 in the Shipboard mystery series. 
(2005), about a husband and wife team of private detectives who investigate theft and murder on a ship traveling from Bombay to Aden; #6 in the Shipboard mystery series. 
(2006), about a husband and wife team of private detectives who investigate murder on a ship on which wealthy banker J.P. Morgan is traveling; #7 in the Shipboard mystery series. 
(2007), about a husband and wife team of private detectives who investigate murder on a ship on which mystery author Arthur Conan Doyle is traveling; #8 in the Shipboard mystery series. 
(2006), about a Scotland Yard inspector sent to Athens to investigate why an exiled sultan's pet cat has been poisoned; #3 in the Seymour of Special Branch mystery series.
(2009), about a follower of Lenin who escapes from tsarist Russia to Australia only to find injustice there, too, and returns to Russia in 1917 to fight in the Revolution.
(2012), about a ruined aristocrat who during the chaos of World War I becomes a member of the Red Latvian Riflemen of the Russian Revolution.
(1969), about a boy growing up in St. Petersburg during the years before World War I and the Russian Revolution, whose family has connections with the czar's family; the author intended this novel for adult readers, although the publisher promoted it for teens.
(1970), about a young man who follows the czar's family to Siberia during the Russian Revolution, with the hope of rescuing them; the author intended this novel for adult readers, although the publisher promoted it for teens; sequel to Three Lives for the Czar.
(2007), about a young prince and a ballerina during the fall of the Romanov dynasty in Russia.
(1975), about two sisters from a wealthy, aristocratic Hungarian family whose world changes over the course of two world wars.
(2014), a family saga about a Sardinian man who adopts an orphaned boy, and the descendants of the boy and his wife.
(2011), about a young woman whose sudden marriage to a man she hardly knows takes her from Amsterdam to Argentina and then New York.
(2012), about two sisters on a farm in the fjordlands of Norway in 1905 on the eve of the country's separation from Sweden; self-published.
(2006), a murder mystery revolving around a visit by the French impressionist painter Claude Monet to Venice to escape a scandalous murder case in Paris; #2 in the Monet mystery series.