Novels of the Seventeenth Century

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The British Isles and North America in the 17th Century
Mysteries: 17th Century Britain and North America
Continental Europe and North America in the 17th Century
Mysteries: 17th Century European Continent and North America


The seventeenth century offers a variety of stirring historical settings, including the Civil Wars in England between the Royalist supporters of King Charles I and the Puritan Parliamentarians; the Thirty Years War that engulfed Germany and its neighbors; the migration from the Old World to the American Colonies and Canada; the last of the witch persecutions, especially the hysteria in the Puritan colony of Salem; and major advances in science led by mathematicians like Kepler and alchemists like Isaac Newton.

For the migration-rich seventeenth century, it is difficult to classify novels set partly in North America and partly in Europe by setting, so all novels set in North America appear in either the British Isles or the Continental Europe categories, depending on where the immigrant characters in a stand-alone novel or series of novels primarily came from. Novels with seventeenth-century settings outside Europe and North America (Africa, Asia, Australia and the Middle East) will be grouped in separate pages, by continent, when posted.

The British Isles and North America
in the 17th Century

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Peter Ackroyd, Milton in America (1986), alternative history in which Milton flees England in 1660 after Cromwell falls.

William Harrison Ainsworth, The Lancashire Witches (1849), about the witches of Pendle Hill in Lancaster County, England, who were tried and executed in 1612.

Vanessa Alexander, The Loving Cup (2001), about a love affair between the poor clerk of Samuel Pepys and a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine who run afoul of the Restoration-era "papist plot" to overthrow King Charles.

Valerie Anand, The Faithful Lovers, family saga about seventeenth-century descendants of English serfs; #4 in the Bridges Over Time series (see the "Medieval" page for #1 in the series)

Poul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest (1974), alternative history in which Prince Rupert of the Rhine is instrumental in helping the Royalists win the English Civil War.

Anthony Anglorus, The Prince of Prigs (2015), about a highwayman who steals from Roundheads to support the Royalists during the English Civil War.

Evelyn Anthony, Charles the King (1961), about King Charles I of England, who was executed in 1625, and his wife Henrietta Maria of France.

Aileen Armitage, Flames of Fortune (2002 reissue; originally published 1972 as Child of Fire under the name Aileen Quigley), historical romance about a tavern girl whose fortunes rise after the Great Fire of London, leading her to become involved in the intrigues of two Restoration courtiers.

Aileen Armitage, A Passionate Cause (2000 reissue; originally published 1971 as King's Pawn under the name Aileen Quigley), about a young pregnant woman who goes to England to find her lover and discovers him at the Restoration court of Charles II.

Michael Arnold, Traitor's Blood (2010), about a soldier who returns to England on a mission of revenge, and is sent to find and capture a spy among the supporters of King Charles I; #1 in the Civil War Chronicles series.

Michael Arnold, Devil’s Charge (2011), about a military officer during the English Civil War who goes on a secret mission to find out what has happened to the woman he loves, a spy for Queen Henrietta Maria; #2 in the Civil War Chronicles series.

Michael Arnold, Hunter's Rage (2012), about a Royalist military officer whose company is threatened with annihilation after they lose a battle in Dartmoor; #3 in the Civil War Chronicles series.

Michael Arnold, Assassin's Reign (2013), about a Royalist military officer who questions his loyalties after an old friend, now fighting for Parliament, saves his life; #4 in the Civil War Chronicles series.

Michael Arnold, Warlord's Gold (2014), about a Royalist military officer sent to recover a treasure in the Scilly Isles in 1643; #5 in the Civil War Chronicles series.

Michael Arnold, Marston Moor (2015), about a Royalist military officer fighting in the Battle of Marston Moor on July 2, 1644; #6 in the Civil War Chronicles series.

Gillian Bagwell, The Darling Strumpet (2011), about Nell Gwynn, the mistress of Charles II.

Gillian Bagwell, The September Queen (2011), historical romance about a young woman who prefers adventure to marriage and finds it when she is asked to help Charles II escape to safety during the English Civil War.

Calvin Baker, Dominion (2006), about a freed slave who settles in the Carolinas in the late seventeenth century and his descendants.

Russell Banks, The Relation of My Imprisonment (1983), the fictional memoir of a coffin-maker who is arrested and thrown into prison.

Margaret Campbell Barnes, With All My Heart (1953), about Catherine of Braganza, the wife of Charles II.

Margaret Campbell Barnes, Mary of Carisbrooke (1956), about Mary Floyd, the seventeen-year-old daughter of the sergeant in charge of the military garrison of Carisbrooke Castle when Charles I was imprisoned there. Review

Mary Ellen Barnes, Peregrine (2012), about the daughter of a royal falconer and her struggle for self-determination during the reign of Charles I, Cromwell's Protectorate, and the settlement of the New World.

John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor, a humorous literary novel about a seventeenth-century Englishman in America.

Andrew Beahrs, Strange Saint, about seventeenth-century immigrants to the Plymouth Colony in America.

Clifford Beal, Gideon’s Angel (2013), about a royalist exile who decides to return to England to assassinate Cromwell in 1653.

Laura Beatty, Darkling (2014), about Lady Brilliana Harley, who defended her castle during a Royalist siege in the English Civil War, and the present-day woman who is researching her life.

Pamela Belle, The Moon in the Water (1982), about a seventeenth-century royalist family during the English Civil War; #1 in the Heron series.

Pamela Belle, The Chains of Fate (1983), about a seventeenth-century royalist family during the English Civil War; #2 in the Heron series.

Pamela Belle, Alathea (1985), about a seventeenth-century royalist family during the English Civil War; #3 in the Heron series.

Pamela Belle, The Lodestar (1987), about a seventeenth-century royalist family during the English Civil War; #4 in the Heron series.

Pamela Belle, Wintercombe (1988), about a Puritan family during the seventeenth-century English Civil War; #1 in the Wintercombe series.

Pamela Belle, Herald of Joy (1989), about a Puritan family during the seventeenth-century English Civil War; #2 in the Wintercombe series.

Pamela Belle, A Falling Star (1990), about a Puritan family during the seventeenth-century English Civil War; #3 in the Wintercombe series.

Pamela Belle, Treason's Gift (1992), about a Puritan family during the seventeenth-century English Civil War; #4 in the Wintercombe series.

Vanora Bennett, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, about a foster daughter of Thomas More and her attraction to two very different men, the portrait-painter Hans Holbein and a student of medicine with a mysterious background.

Fr. Robert Hugh Benson, Oddsfish! (1914), about a Catholic in the Restoration court of Charles II as the king struggles with the general prejudice against Catholics, his moral failings and his faith.

Pauline Bentley, The Cavalier's Masque, historical romance set during the English Civil War.

Pauline Bentley, Fallen Angels, about a family of traveling players during the English Civil War and the Restoration; sequel to Rogues and Players, set in Renaissance England.

Virginia Bernhard, A Durable Fire, about women immigrants to the Jamestown Colony in early seventeenth-century Virginia.

Charlotte Betts, The Apothecary’s Daughter (2012), about a London woman trained in herbal medicine who marries to escape her stepmother just as the Plague is about to descend on the city.

Ina Binner, The Devil Prince (1979), about Rupert of the Rhine, who fought for the Royalists during the English Civil War; not readily available in the U.S.

Nancy Blanton, Sharavogue (2012), about an Irish warrior's daughter who vows revenge against Oliver Cromwell after his army ravages a village and beheads a boy; self-published.

Douglas Boren, Pirate's Revenge (2012), about a pirate who wants revenge on the father he never knew, who treated his mother brutally.

Tracy Borman, The King’s Witch (2018), about a woman whose uncle forces her to come to court after King James I (James VI of Scotland) succeeds Elizabeth I as the English monarch in 1603, to find that her skills as a herbalist are now regarded as witchcraft.

Paula Brackston, The Witch's Daughter (2011), about a woman who practices Wicca in the present day and three dramatic episodes in her life since she learned witchcraft in the seventeenth century and became immortal. Review or Author Interview

Paula Brackston, Return of the Witch (2016), about a witch, her daughter, and an evil warlock; sequel to The Witch’s Daughter.

Paula Brackston, The Little Shop of Found Things (2018), about the present-day owner of an antique shop who slips back in time to the 17th century when she handles a beautiful silver chatelaine, and is charged with the responsibility of saving a girl's life.

Gillian Bradshaw, London in Chains (2009), about a young woman who goes to work in London for a publisher of political pamphlets during the English Civil War.

Gillian Bradshaw, A Corruptible Crown (2011), about a blacksmith forced to reenlist during the English Civil War while his wife struggles to continue her risky printing business; sequel to London in Chains.

Marie Brennan, In Ashes Lie (forthcoming in June 2009), historical fantasy set in 1666 about parallel challenges facing the mortal world and the world of fae as a great fire breaks out in London.

Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders, about a woman in a plague-stricken English town that altruistically barricades itself away from the outside world.

Geraldine Brooks, Caleb’s Crossing (2011), about a young woman from Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts who befriends a chieftain's son who in 1665 becomes the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College.

Amy Belding Brown, Flight of the Sparrow (2014), about Mary Rowlandson, a Puritan woman captured by Indians in 1676 who finds herself drawn to the Indians' ways and begins to question her previous way of life.

Stacia M. Brown, Accidents of Providence (2012); about an unmarried woman in London accused of killing her child under a new law passed after Cromwell takes over the government.

Bryher, The Player's Boy, about an apprentice actor in early seventeenth-century England; Bryher was the pen name of Annie Winnifred Ellerman.

John Dickson Carr, The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey (1936), about the murder of a justice of the peace in 1678 which enemies of King Charles II use as a pretext to stir up anti-Catholic sentiment.

John Dickson Carr, Most Secret (1964), set in 1670 and based on his 1934 "Musketeers" novel Devil Kinsmere, published under the pen-name Roger Fairbairn.

Nicholas Carter, Turncoat's Drum (1995), about men fighting on different sides of the English Civil War; #1 in the Shadow on the Crown series.

Nicholas Carter, Storming Party (1996), about men fighting on different sides of the English Civil War; #2 in the Shadow on the Crown series.

Nicholas Carter, And King's Men Crow (1997), about men fighting on different sides of the English Civil War during the 1643 Siege of Gloucester; #3 in the Shadow on the Crown series.

Nicholas Carter, Harvest of Swords (1998), about men fighting on different sides of the English Civil War; #4 in the Shadow on the Crown series.

Nicholas Carter, Stand By the Colours (1999), about men fighting on different sides of the English Civil War; #5 in the Shadow on the Crown series.

Megan Chance, Susannah Morrow: A Novel of Salem, about the Salem witch persecutions.

Ella March Chase, The Queen’s Dwarf (2014), about a young dwarf trained by the Duke of Buckingham to spy on King Charles I's French queen, Henrietta, in 1629.

Paul Clayton, White Seed: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke (2009), about settlers in the doomed British colony of Roanoke, Virginia; self-published.

Maryse Condé, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, a literary novel which borrows historical incidents from the Salem witch persecutions and blends them with a modern sensibility and fictional characters like Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter to make a point about racist and sexist attitudes.

Bruce Cook, Young Will, an aging Shakespeare writes a memoir of his misspent youth.

Bernard Cornwell, A Crowning Mercy, about a woman in seventeenth-century London.

Christina Courtenay, The Scarlet Kimono (2011), historical romance about an adventurous young Englishwoman who stows away on her brother's merchant ship and after reaching Japan is abducted by a samurai warrior.

Michael Crichton, Pirate Latitudes (2009), about the risky mission of a privateer from the English colony of Jamaica in 1665. Review

J.D. Davies, Gentleman Captain (2010), about a young royalist seaman named captain of a ship and sent to stop a rebellion in Scotland in the time of King Charles II.

Lindsey Davis, Rebels and Traitors (2009), about a man who fights for Parliament and a woman whose husband fights for the Royalists during the English Civil War. Review or Author Interview

Lindsey Davis, A Cruel Fate (2014), about two men captured by Royalists during the English Civil War and mistreated by a cruel jailer, who dream of escaping; a "Quick Reads" novel for adults looking for easy-to-read fiction.

Anita Davison, Duking Days: Rebellion, about a young woman whose family's property is confiscated after the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685 England; #1 in the Duking Days series.

Anita Davison, Duking Days: Revolution (2008), about a young wife and her struggle for security on the eve of the 1688 Glorious Revolution; #2 in the Duking Days series.

Jan de Hartog, The Peaceable Kingdom (1972), about the seventeenth-century Quaker migration to America; #1 in the Quaker trilogy.

Jan de Hartog, The Lamb's War (1980), about about a Quaker woman's experiences in a Nazi concentration camp where she becomes the camp doctor's mistress; #2 in the Quaker trilogy.

Jan de Hartog, The Peculiar People (1992), about Quakers working among the Shawnee Indians in the 1830s as the U.S. cavalry pushes the Indians westward; #3 in the Quaker trilogy.

Christie Dickason, The Lady Tree, about a young Englishman blackmailed into traveling to the Netherlands on a financially risky venture during the "Tulipmania"; #1 in the Lady Tree trilogy.

Christie Dickason, Quicksilver, about a young musician in the court of Charles I who fears he may have become a werewolf; #2 in the Lady Tree trilogy.

Christie Dickason, The Memory Palace, about a young pregnant woman struggling to survive after her baby's father is exiled; #3 in the Lady Tree trilogy.

Christie Dickason, The Firemaster's Mistress, about a seventeenth-century explosives expert forced to infiltrate the Gunpowder Plot conspirators as a government spy.

Christie Dickason, The Principessa, an English gunpowder expert, sent to Italy as a spy, meets his match in a wily and beautiful young widow; sequel to The Firemaster's Mistress.

Christie Dickason, The King's Daughter (2010), about King James I's daughter Elizabeth and her efforts to pull strings so that her father will arrange her marriage to the suitor she finds most appealing.

Christie Dickason, The Noble Assassin (2011), about Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, who shines at the court of King James I and his queen consort, Anne of Denmark, where she falls in love with poet John Donne. Review

Susan Donnell, Pocahontas, a romantic novel about Pocahontas which portrays her and John Smith as lovers.

Emma Donoghue, Astray (2012), historical short stories about emigrants and immigrants, mostly set in the U.S. from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. Review

Daphne du Maurier, Frenchman's Creek (1941), about a woman who leaves her husband at the court of King Charles II and goes to stay on his Cornish estate, where she encounters a dashing French pirate.

Daphne du Maurier, The King's General, set in the period between the First and Second English Civil Wars.

Danielle Dutton, Margaret the First (2016), about Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, one of the first women to publish in her own name. Review

Rose Earhart, Dorcas Good: The Diary of a Salem Witch (1999), about the Salem witch trials.

Robert Edric, The Earth Made of Glass, a literary novel about an investigation into missing church funds in a small town in seventeenth-century Lancashire.

Samuel Edwards, The King's Messenger (1956), about a spy for England's King William operating against the French in 1695 in colonial America; Samuel Edwards is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson.

Samuel Edwards, The Queen's Husband (1960), about King William of Orange and his wife Queen Mary, who jointly ruled the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1689 until her death in 1694, with William continuing his rule until his death in 1702; Samuel Edwards is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson.

Erastes, Transgressions (2009), about two young Puritan men whose secret past as lovers leads one to war and the other to a life as a witch hunter during the English Civil War.

Hermione Eyre, Viper Wine (2014), historical fantasy about Lady Venetia Stanley, famed for her beauty during the reign of Charles I, and her time-traveling alchemist husband.

Roger Fairbairn, Devil Kinsmere (1934), an adventure novel with a "Musketeers" theme; Roger Fairbairn was a pen-name of John Dickson Carr, who published a revision of this novel in 1964 under the title Most Secret; out of print and not readily available.

Susan Fletcher, Corrag (2010), about a woman who witnesses a massacre in 1692 and is accused of causing it through witchcraft.

E.C. Fremantle, The Poison Bed (2018), about Robert and Frances Carr, who married for love after her previous marriage was annulled, and were imprisoned on a charge of murder in 1615.

Douglas Galbraith, The Rising Sun (2000), about a young shipworker involved in a Scottish expedition to Darien (now Panama) in 1698 in an attempt to found a colony.

Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Calligraphy of the Witch, about a Mexican servant girl caught up in the Salem witch hunt.

Noel B. Gerson, Port Royal (1954), , about an English adventurer in 1692 and his efforts to thwart a rebellion against English authority in colonial Jamaica.

Denise Giardina, Fallam's Secret, about a modern woman who travels back in time to Cromwell's England.

Kathleen Givens, The Legend, historical romance about a highborn Scottish lass who stumbles into romance while on her way to warn her cousin of a murder plot during the time of William and Mary.

Kathleen Givens, The Destiny, historical romance about a young woman in a precarious position after her father's death who takes the risk of freeing a spy caught in her family home during the time of William and Mary; sequel to The Legend.

Patricia Goodwin, When Two Women Die (2011), about the murders of two women by pirates in Marblehead, Massachusetts, one in 1690 and the other in 1991, and the psychics who warn the community in vain; self-published.

Elizabeth Goudge, The Child from the Sea, about Lucy Walter, who may have been the secret wife of King Charles II and the mother of his son, the Duke of Monmouth.

Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch (1958), about a wisewoman, the daughter of a gypsy, whose family members fight on different sides during the English Civil War.

Philippa Gregory, Earthly Joys, about a seventeenth-century gardener at Buckingham Palace.

Philippa Gregory, Virgin Earth, a former Buckingham Palace gardener flees to America; sequel to Earthly Joys.

Michael Gruber, The Book of Air and Shadows, a thriller about a contemporary bookstore employee who discovers a seventeenth-century letter which sends him on a quest for an undiscovered work by William Shakespeare.

Diane Haeger, The Perfect Royal Mistress, about Nell Gwynne, the actress who became mistress of the Restoration king, Charles II.

Maeve Haran, The Lady and the Poet (2009), a love story about the poet John Donne and Ann More, whom he married in 1601 despite the opposition of her family and his patrons.

Titania Hardie, The Rose Labyrinth (2008), about a woman who receives a heart transplant from a direct descendant of John Dee, Elizabeth I's astrologer, and then becomes swept up in his unfinished project of discovering what lies behind his mysterious family legacy of a tiny silver key.

Simon A. Hart, A Silver Bullet, set during the first Jacobite rebellion in 1689 Scotland; self-published.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850), about a woman in the Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1640s, who bears an illegitimate child and is forced to wear a scarlet "A" for "adulteress" on her clothing.

Jody Hedlund, The Preacher's Bride (2010), about a young Puritan woman in Cromwell's England who becomes housekeeper for a widowed preacher with four children, one a baby and another blind; Christian message.

Kathleen Herbert, Moon in Leo (2011), about an orphaned young woman struggling to escape a forced marriage and live in safety during the turbulent early Restoration period.

Georgette Heyer, Royal Escape, about King Charles II; uncharacteristically for the queen of the "Regency romance," this is not a romance.

Frances Hill, Deliverance from Evil (2011), about two girls whose game of fortune-telling leads to the Salem witch persecutions.

David Hingley, Birthright (2017), about an English woman threatened with the loss of her freedom during the early years of King Charles II's reign, whose father, on the verge of execution, leaves her a cryptic message that takes her as far as the New World and the fledgling town of New York; #1 in the Mercia Blakewood series.

David Hingley, Puritan (2017), about an English woman in colonial New York who makes friends with an American medicine woman and, in order to investigate a murder, delays her return to England; #2 in the Mercia Blakewood series.

David Hingley, Traitor (2018), about a woman who returns to England from America in February 1665 and is forced to accept a mission to catch a traitor in the bawdy court of King Charles II by secretly posing as a man's mistress; #3 in the Mercia Blakewood series.

Deborah Homsher, The Rising Shore: Roanoke, about the doomed American colony of Roanoke.

Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (2009), about a modern Ph.D. student who finds an old key in her grandmother's house and soon begins to suspect she has personal ties to the witch persecutions in Salem in the 1690s. Review

C.C. Humphreys, Plague (2014), about a highwayman who, after finding the victims he intends to rob brutally murdered by an unknown killer, uncovers a plot to kill King Charles II, amid a plague epidemic. Review at the Vancouver Sun

Laird Hunt, In the House in the Dark of the Woods (2018), dark fantasy about a Puritan woman in colonial New England who meets another woman while wandering in a eerie woods full of almost-human wolves and other creepy phenomena.

Marci Jefferson, Girl on the Golden Coin (2014), about Frances Stuart, a beautiful Royalist exile who returns to England, where she is under pressure to become the mistress of King Charles II. Review

Kathryn Johnson, The Gentleman Poet (2010), a reimagining of Shakespeare's The Tempest in which a servant girl is shipwrecked in Bermuda in 1609 while on her way to the Jamestown Colony and falls in love with a cook, encouraged by a mysterious playwright.

Wayne Karlin, The Wished-For Country, about a feud between a man and his former slave in Colonial America.

Susanna Kearsley, Mariana (2012); about a present-day woman who buys an old farmhouse and begins to have memories of another life there three hundred years in the past.

Brian Keenan, Turlough (2000), about the blind Irish harper and composer Turlough O'Carolan.

Kathleen Kent, The Heretic's Daughter (2008), about a mother and daughter in Salem, Massachusetts, who discover a new respect for each other when the mother is charged with witchcraft.

Kathleen Kent, The Wolves of Andover (2010; titled The Traitor's Wife in the U.K.), about a headstrong servant girl in Massachusetts who falls in love with a laborer whose past involvement in the English Civil War may still endanger him; a prequel to The Heretic's Daughter.

Karleen Koen, Dark Angels, about a lady-in-waiting in the Restoration court of Charles II.

Giles Kristian, The Bleeding Land (2012), about a royalist father and his two sons who fight on opposite sides of the English Civil War; #1 in the Bleeding Land trilogy.

Giles Kristian, Brothers' Fury (2013), about two brothers fighting on opposite sides of the English Civil War and their sister, who hopes to reconcile them; #2 in the Bleeding Land trilogy.

Rosalind Laker, Far Seeks the Heart, a romantic novel about a Scottish chieftain's wife.

Rosalind Laker, Circle of Pearls (1990), about a woman in Puritan England who safeguards the last remaining gown of Queen Elizabeth I.

Dinah Lampitt, Banishment, a time-travel romance in which a woman finds herself in England during the time of the Civil War.

Patricia Lawson, A Price Above Rubies (1991), about a young woman, the daughter of a weaver in the Cotswolds, as tensions leading to the English Civil War begin to rise.

Claire Letemendia, The Best of Men (2009), about a battle-weary soldier who returns to England after fighting in the Thirty Years War on the Continent only to find England too about to plunge into a civil war. Review

V.C. Letemendia, The Licence of War (2014), about a former mercenary forced to work as a spy for the Secretary of State of King Charles I and track down one of Parliament's spies; sequel to The Best of Men.

Hilda Lewis, The Witch and the Priest (1956), about an aging priest visited by the spirit of a witch he condemned to death in 1618.

Hilda Lewis, Wife to Charles II (1965), about Catherine of Braganza, who coped with her husband's notorious womanizing and her own inability to bear a child.

Joanne Limburg, A Want of Kindness (2015), about Anne, the niece of King Charles II, from her girlhood in her uncle's bawdy court to her life as Queen of England. Review

Norah Lofts, Scent of Cloves (1957), about the orphaned daughter of English Royalists who grows up in poverty in Ireland after Cromwell comes to power, and then as a young woman is sent to the Dutch East Indies to become the wife of a man she has never met.

Norah Lofts, Pargeters (1984), about the family who lives in a house named for the pargeter (plasterer) whose skilled work embellished it, and the daughter who agrees to an unhappy marriage during the English Civil War in order to continue living there.

Gerard Mac, Pilgrims: A Novel of the Mayflower (1994), about a London slum girl with a dark secret who flees to America on the Mayflower, where she meets a young man from a different background and falls in love.

Rose Macaulay, They Were Defeated (1932; titled The Shadow Flies in the U.S.), about the poet Robert Herrick and his friends during the reign of Charles I as the English Civil War looms.

Walter Macken, Seek the Fair Land (1959), about an Irish merchant who must fight to defend his town from Cromwell's invading army in 1649; #1 in the Irish Trilogy.

Walter Macken, The Silent People (1962), about a young Irishman who has to flee his home in 1826 after an altercation with the landlord's son; #2 in the Irish Trilogy.

Walter Macken, The Scorching Wind (1964), about two brothers involved in the Irish struggle for Home Rule; #3 in the Irish Trilogy.

F. van Wyck Mason, Cutlass Empire (1949), a romantic novel about Henry Morgan, the seventeenth-century Welsh privateer who rose to become Governor of Jamaica.

F. van Wyck Mason, The Sea 'Venture (1961), about Admiral Sir George Somers, a British naval commander who landed his ship, the Sea 'Venture, originally destined for the Jamestown Colony in Virginia, in the Bermudas during a hurricane in 1609.

Kate McCafferty, Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl, about an Irish girl kidnapped at the age of 10 and sold into slavery in Barbados.

Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird, about a witch persecution in 1699 Carolina.

Robert McCammon, The Queen of Bedlam, sequel to Speaks the Nightbird.

Maria McCann, As Meat Loves Salt, about a servant who joins Cromwell's army during the English Civil War and later becomes involved with the Diggers movement. Review.

Maria McCann, The Wilding (2010), about a cider-maker in the years after the English Civil War who decides to investigate a mysterious and potentially horrifying family secret. Review

Katharine McMahon, After Mary (2000), about a young woman from a seventeenth century English Catholic family who becomes involved with Mary Ward's pioneering effort to form an uncloistered order of nuns similar to the Jesuit Order.

Susan Meissner, The Shape of Mercy (2008), about a modern college student who takes a job transcribing the diary of a woman victim of the Salem witch trials and becomes involved with the diary's owner, a woman still profoundly affected by her ancestor's experiences.

Wendel Messer, The Conquest of Canada: A Novel of Discovery (2006), about the founding of a French colony in Canada in the early seventeenth century; self-published.

Siri Mitchell, A Constant Heart (2008), about a woman whose introduction at the court of Queen Elizabeth goes awry, threatening her prospect of being married to the man she loves; Christian message.

Siri Mitchell, Love's Pursuit (2009), about a Puritan woman whose expectations in life and understanding of God are upended when the wealthiest bachelor in her Massachusetts town begins to court her; Christian message.

Jude Morgan, The King's Touch (2002), about Charles II, the English king of the Restoration period.

Jump to end of Gilbert Morris section

Gilbert Morris, The Honorable Imposter (1986), about a young Englishman employed to spy on religious separatists in Holland who sails to America on the Mayflower, where he is torn between two women; Christian message; #1 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Captive Bride (1987), a a woman caught in the Salem witch persecutions; Christian message; #2 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Indentured Heart (1988), about an American farmer and the English girl who becomes his indentured servant in the period before the Revolutionary War; Christian message; #3 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Gentle Rebel (1988), about a young man who develops Patriot sympathies despite his love for a beautiful but spoiled Tory; Christian message; #4 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Saintly Buccaneer (1988), about a family torn by conflict when some of them support the American Revolutionaries while others remain loyal to the British; Christian message; #5 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Holy Warrior (1989), about two brothers who travel west in the years after the American Revolution; Christian message; #6 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Reluctant Bridegroom (1990), about a young man determined not to marry again who agrees to escort a wagon train of women from New York to Oregon to become brides; Christian message; #7 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Last Confederate (1990), about a family that settles in Virginia shortly before the Civil War and faces the prospect of fighting against relations from the North; Christian message; #8 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Dixie Widow (1991), about a young widow who agrees to travel north to stay with her relations and spy for the Confederates; Christian message; #9 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Wounded Yankee (1991), about a man who becomes bitter after he returns home from fighting in the Civil War to discover his partner has stolen both his business and his fiancée; Christian message; #10 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Union Belle (1992), about a man released from a Mexican jail only to find himself jailed again after he must shoot a man in order to protect a young woman; Christian message; #11 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Final Adversary (1992), about a prizefighter who drinks too much and regrets the way he has hurt a saloon girl; Christian message; #12 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Crossed Sabres (1993), about a man who becomes an Indian agent after the Civil War but joins a cavalry unit to give his daughter a better life just before the Battle of the Little Big Horn; Christian message; #13 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Valiant Gunman (1993), about a young man who finally achieves his dream of going West to become a cowboy and arrives in Wyoming where a wealthy rancher is driving smaller ranches out of business; Christian message; #14 in the House of Winslow series.

Gilbert Morris, The Gallant Outlaw (1993), about a man who becomes an Indian agent after the Civil War but joins a cavalry unit to give his daughter a better life just before the Battle of the Little Big Horn; Christian message; #15 in the House of Winslow series.

Toni Morrison, A Mercy (2008), about a young woman sold into slavery in a farming household in 1680 Maryland, when slavery was not yet entrenched in America or specific to a particular race.

James Morrow, The Last Witchfinder, about the daughter of a late seventeenth century "witchfinder" who makes it her mission to end the persecution of witches after she discovers a letter of Isaac Newton expressing the opinion that evil spirits do not exist.

Annette Motley, The Quickenberry Tree, set during the seventeenth century English Civil War.

Fiona Mountain, Lady of the Butterflies (2010), historical romance about Eleanor Glanville, the butterfly-loving Puritan's daughter for whom the Glanville fritillary was named. Review

Fiona Mountain, Cavalier Queen (2011), about Henrietta Maria, the French princess who married King Charles I.

Neil Munro, John Splendid (1898), about a young man who returns to the Scottish highlands in 1744 amid conflicts between his marquis, who wishes to end the warfare between clans, and the royalist military commander, the Marquis of Montrose.

Kim Murphy, The Dreaming: Walks Through Mist (2011), historical fantasy about a present-day woman who claims to have come from a parallel world in the past, in which the Powhatan Indians and Colonial Jamestown still exist.

Kerry Newcomb, Mad Morgan, about a Welshman who escapes from slavery in the Caribbean and turns pirate.

Lawrence Norfolk, John Saturnall's Feast (2012), about an exceptional cook on the eve of the English Civil War. Review

Diana Norman, The Vizard Mask, about two women who use their wits to escape debtors' prison and become involved in intrigues in the Restoration court of Charles II.

Mary Novik, Conceit (2007), about the imaginative and rebellious daughter of poet John Donne. Review

Robert Nye, Mrs. Shakespeare: The Complete Works (1993), a humorous, bawdy novel about Shakespeare's wife.

Robert Nye, The Late Mr. Shakespeare (1998), a humorous, bawdy novel narrated by player in Shakespeare's troupe (all were male) who specialized in women's roles.

Daniel O'Mahoney, Newtons Sleep (2008), a science fiction novel about time-travelers at war, set in seventeenth-century England.

Oliver Onions, The Story of Ragged Robyn (1945), about a farm boy who lives in fear of the thieves who have threatened revenge on him for warning people about their presence.

Priya Parmar, Exit the Actress (2011), a novel, told in the form of letters and diary entries, about Nell Gwyn, whose life on the stage leads her to become a mistress of King Charles II.

Christopher Peachment, The Green and the Gold: A Novel of Andrew Marvell, Spy, Politician, Poet, about the seventeenth English poet who wrote "To His Coy Mistress."

Clive Perry, Faith, Hope and Christopher, about the seventeenth century architect Sir Christopher Wren and Faith Coghill, the woman he married; self-published.

Jean Plaidy, Myself, My Enemy (1983; recent edition titled Loyal in Love), about Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I of England.

Jean Plaidy, The Wandering Prince (1956), about the Restoration King Charles II, #1 in the Charles II trilogy (now collected in a single volume as The Loves of Charles II).

Jean Plaidy, A Health Unto His Majesty (1956), about the Restoration King Charles II, #2 in the Charles II trilogy (now collected in a single volume as The Loves of Charles II).

Jean Plaidy, Here Lies Our Sovereign Lord (1957), about the Restoration King Charles II, #3 in the Charles II trilogy (now collected in a single volume as The Loves of Charles II).

Jean Plaidy, The Pleasures of Love (1991; new edition titled The Merry Monarch's Wife: The Story of Catherine of Braganza), about the Portuguese wife of the promiscuous Restoration king Charles II; #9 in the Queens of England series

Jean Plaidy, William's Wife (1992; new edition titled The Queen's Devotion), about Mary, the daughter of King James II of England, who married William of Orange, with whom she ruled jointly as a co-equal monarch after her father's death; #10 in the Queens of England series.

Jean Plaidy, The Three Crowns (1965), about King James II and King William and Queen Mary, #1 in the Stuart Saga.

Jean Plaidy, The Haunted Sisters (1966), about King James II and King William and Queen Mary, #2 in the Stuart Saga.

Jean Plaidy, The Queen's Favourites (1966; recently reissued under the title Courting Her Highness), about Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart line, #3 in the Stuart Saga.

Maggie Plummer, Spirited Away - A Novel of the Stolen Irish (2012), about two Irish sisters sent into slavery on a Barbados sugar plantation in 1653; self-published.

Dudley Pope, Buccaneer (1981), about an English privateer captain in the 1650s as he confronts the Spanish in the Caribbean, a sea they consider their private domain; #1 in the Ned Yorke series.

Dudley Pope, Admiral (1982), about the English leader of a band of privateers defending the English colony of Jamaica from a Spanish attack; #2 in the Ned Yorke series.

Dudley Pope, Galleon (1986), about the English leader of a band of privateers attempting to capture a Spanish treasure galleon; #3 in the Ned Yorke series.

Dudley Pope, Corsair (1987), about the English leader of a band of privateers as they plan an attack on a Spanish port and their assembling war fleet; #4 in the Ned Yorke series.

Donald Clayton Porter, White Indian (1979), about a son of European colonists in America who is raised by the Seneca to become a senior warrior during the late 1600s; #1 in the White Indian series; Donald Clayton Porter is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson. Review of the series at the Rough Edges blog

Donald Clayton Porter, The Renegade (1980), about a white man raised as an Seneca warrior whose tribe sends him to London to present a case against the French and Huron Indians, who have been menacing the Seneca and the American colonists; #2 in the White Indian series; Donald Clayton Porter is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson.

Donald Clayton Porter, War Chief (1980), about a Seneca war chief, born white but raised by the Seneca, who helps American colonists when the Pimlico tribe threatens to attack them; #3 in the White Indian series; Donald Clayton Porter is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson.

Donald Clayton Porter, The Sachem (1981), about a Seneca sachem who leads his people into battle alongside American colonists against the French and Spanish; #4 in the White Indian series; Donald Clayton Porter is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson.

Donald Clayton Porter, Renno (1981), about a Seneca sachem who organizes his tribe against the French in support of American colonists; #5 in the White Indian series; Donald Clayton Porter is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson.

Donald Clayton Porter, Tomahawk (1982), about a Seneca leader, born to white American colonists but raised by the Seneca; #6 in the White Indian series; Donald Clayton Porter is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson.

Donald Clayton Porter, War Cry (1983), about a Seneca leader, born to white American colonists but raised by the Seneca; #7 in the White Indian series; Donald Clayton Porter is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson.

Donald Clayton Porter, Ambush (1983), about a Seneca leader, born to white American colonists but raised by the Seneca; #8 in the White Indian series; Donald Clayton Porter is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson.

Donald Clayton Porter, Seneca (1984), about a Seneca leader, born to white American colonists but raised by the Seneca; #9 in the White Indian series; Donald Clayton Porter is a pen name of Noel B. Gerson.

Peter Ransley, Plague Child (2011), about an orphan raised by a plague cart driver, apprenticed to a printer and educated by a mysterious benefactor during the English Civil War; #1 in the Tom Neave trilogy.

Peter Ransley, Cromwell's Blessing (2012), about a man given a position in Cromwell's government after the English Civil War; #2 in the Tom Neave trilogy.

Lucia St. Clair Robson, Mary's Land, set in seventeenth century Colonial Maryland.

Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood, about an Englishman sent into slavery in the Caribbean who escapes and turns pirate.

Cheryl Sawyer, The Winter Prince (2007), historical romance about Mary Villers, the Duchess of Richmond, and Prince Rupert of the Rhine during the English Civil War when he supported his uncle King Charles I. Review

Susan Holloway Scott, The Countess and the King (2010), about Katherine Sedley, the mistress of England's King James II.

Susan Holloway Scott, The French Mistress (2009), about Louise de Keroualle, a maid of honor at the French court of Louis XIV who catches the eye of England's Charles II and is sent to him as a "gift" with instructions to act as a spy for France. Review and Author Interview

Susan Holloway Scott, The King's Favorite (2008), about Nell Gwynn, who rose from poverty as an actress and become the mistress of King Charles II while still in her teens.

Susan Holloway Scott, Royal Harlot (2007), about Charles II's mistress Barbara Villiers Palmer.

Susan Holloway Scott, Duchess: A Novel of Sarah Churchill (2006), about an ancestress of Winston Churchill at the Restoration court of Charles II.

Sir Walter Scott, Old Mortality (1816), about a moderate Scot during the Covenanter uprising who is torn between his loyalty to Scotland and his love for the granddaughter of a royalist.

Sir Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), the tragic story of a young man in seventeenth century Scotland who falls in love with the daughter of the dishonest lawyer who tricked his father out of his estate.

Sir Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose (1819), about a love triangle during the Scottish Covenanter uprising of 1640.

Sir Walter Scott, Peveril of the Peak (1822), about a plot to assassinate King Charles II.

Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel (1822), about King James I of England.

Sir Walter Scott, Woodstock (1826), set during the English Civil War.

Anya Seton, The Winthrop Woman (1958), about a seventeenth century Englishwoman who migrates to America with the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Company. Review

Mary Lee Settle, I, Roger Williams, about the man who was secretary to the English jurist Sir Edward Coke and founded Rhode Island, working for the separation of church and state; #1 in the Beulah Quartet (third in the quartet to be published).

Tim Severin, Corsair, about a seventeen-year-old Irish boy kidnapped by corsairs from North Africa and sold into slavery in Algiers; #1 in the Hector Lynch series.

Tim Severin, Buccaneer, an adventure story about an Irish sailor and his feud with a notorious buccaneer; #2 in the Hector Lynch series.

Tim Severin, The Sea Robber (2009), an adventure story about an Irish pirate who makes a dangerous trip around Cape Horn in search of the Spanish woman he loves; #3 in the Hector Lynch series.

Tim Severin, Pirate Privateer (2014; U.S. publication scheduled for 2015), an adventure story about a Caribbean pirate who, while trying to reach his wife and take up a legal profession, commits further acts of piracy; #4 in the Hector Lynch series.

Anita Seymour, Royalist Rebel (2013), about Elizabeth Murray, Countess Dysart and Duchess of Lauderdale, who struggles to protect her mother and sisters as Parliament threatens to confiscate their house during the English Civil War.

Mary Sharratt, Daughters of the Witching Hill (2010), about the Pendle witches, a group of cunning women in Lancashire County, England, who practiced folk magic and were tried as witches in 1612. Review or Author Interview

Danielle Sosin, The Long-Shining Waters (2011), about women who live on the shores of America's Lake Superior in 1622, 1902 and 2000.

John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold (1926), Steinbeck's first novel, featuring Henry Morgan, the seventeenth century Welsh privateer who rose to become Governor of Jamaica.

Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver, about the scientific discoveries of the late 17th and early 18th centuries; set in England, France, the Netherlands and America; #1 in the Baroque Cycle.

Neal Stephenson, The Confusion, about the scientific discoveries of the late 17th and early 18th centuries; set in England, France, the Netherlands and America; #2 in the Baroque Cycle.

Neal Stephenson, The System of the World, about the scientific discoveries of the late 17th and early 18th centuries; set in England, France, the Netherlands and America; #3 in the Baroque Cycle.

Jane Stevenson, The Winter Queen, about a love affair between an African prince and the exiled Queen of Bohemia in seventeenth century Holland; #1 in the Queen of Bohemia trilogy.

Jane Stevenson, The Shadow King, about the son of an African prince and the exiled Queen of Bohemia in seventeenth century Holland; #2 in the Queen of Bohemia trilogy (#3, The Empress of the Last Days, is set in contemporary England).

Rosemary Sutcliff, The Rider of the White Horse, about the Parliamentarian general Sir Thomas Fairfax and his wife Anne, who traveled with him on campaign during the English Civil War.

Deborah Swift, The Lady's Slipper (2010), about a woman who steals a rare lady's slipper orchid from a Quaker's property in 1660, setting off a deadly chain of events. Review or Author Interview

Deborah Swift, The Gilded Lily (2012), about a housemaid who flees to London with her sister in 1660 after her employer dies.

Deborah Swift, A Divided Inheritance (2013), about a young London woman whose dream is to keep up her father's lace business, but who must go to Spain in search of her swordsman cousin when her father dies and leaves the business to him.

Josephine Tey, The Privateer (1952), about Henry Morgan, a seventeenth century Welsh privateer who rose to become Governor of Jamaica.

Adam Thorpe, Ulverton (1992), about life in a small English village over 300 years, beginning in 1650.

Stella Tillyard, The Great Level (2018), about a Dutch engineer working on a project to drain the English fens in 1649, and the woman who changes his life.

Nigel Tranter, The Wisest Fool, about the friendship of James VI of Scotland (later James I of England), his cousin the Duke of Lennox, and master goldsmith George Heriot; set in seventeenth century London.

Nigel Tranter, Poetic Justice, about William Alexander, who translated the Psalms for the King James Bible.

Nigel Tranter, Unicorn Rampant, about the 1617 return visit of King James I of England to Scotland, where he had ruled as King James VI.

Nigel Tranter, Mail Royal, about a seventeenth century quest to find the letters of Mary Queen of Scots that incriminated her in a plot against Queen Elizabeth and sealed her fate.

Nigel Tranter, The Young Montrose, about James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose, and his difficult relationship with King Charles I.

Nigel Tranter, Montrose: The Captain General, about about James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose, during the Cromwell years and the Restoration; sequel to The Young Montrose.

Nigel Tranter, Honours Even, about the exile of young Charles II in Scotland during the Cromwell years.

Nigel Tranter, Hope Endures, about Thomas Hope, the Scottish lawyer who advised James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) and Oliver Cromwell.

Nigel Tranter, Triple Alliance, about Colonel James Stansfield, who founded the woolen mills at Haddington, Scotland.

Nigel Tranter, The Patriot, about the Scottish republican Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun.

Rose Tremain, Music and Silence (1999), about an English lute player at the court of the Danish King Christian IV in 1629.

Rose Tremain, Restoration (1989), about a surgeon in the court of King Charles II.

Rose Tremain, Merivel (2012), about a melancholic courtier late in the reign of King Charles II who visits Versailles; sequel to Restoration. Review

Mark Turnbull, Decision Most Deadly (2009), about a man who rises from humble roots through military service and must choose which side to support, Crown or Parliament, with England on the brink of civil war; self-published.

Elizabeth Gray Vining, Take Heed of Loving Me, about the poet John Donne.

William T. Vollmann, Fathers and Crows, about conflicts between European colonists and Native North Americans; #2 in the Seven Dreams series (see the Medieval Viking section for #1, The Ice Shirt).

William T. Vollmann, The Rifles, about conflicts between European colonists and Native North Americans; #6 in the Seven Dreams series (published out of chronological order).

William T. Vollmann, Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, about conflicts between European colonists and Native North Americans; #3 in the Seven Dreams series (published out of chronological order).

Hebe Weenolsen, The Trial of Jenny Sykes (1990), about a doctor who believes a young woman accused of killing her baby is innocent because the child was stillborn.

Robert Wilton, Traitor's Field (2013), about an aged Royalist whose discovery of a letter brings him in contact with the Royalist intelligence network, and a young official working for Cromwell's newly formed government in 1648.

Kathleen Winsor, Forever Amber (1944), about a mistress of Charles II who survives plague and the Great Fire of London; a forerunner of the bodice-ripper historical romance genre.

Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry, a literary novel about a seventeenth century London woman and the child she takes in after finding him floating in the Thames.

Jeanette Winterson, The Daylight Gate (2012), about Alice Nutter, a wealthy woman who tries to defend a group of poor women accused of witchcraft amid the repressive Protestant atmosphere of James I's England. Review

Suzy Witten, The Afflicted Girls (2009), a supernatural tale inspired by the 1692 Salem witch trials.

Marly Youmans, Catherwood, about a woman in seventeenth century Colonial New England.

Nancy Zaroulis, Massachusetts (1991), a family saga that begins with a man's arrival on the Mayflower and follows his descendants, with a special focus on the women, into the 1960s.

Andrea Zuvich, His Last Mistress (2013), about the love affair between Charles II's illegitimate son James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth, and Lady Henrietta Wentworth.

Mysteries and Thrillers: 17th Century Britain and North America

Purchase from the Book Depository, Amazon or Powell's Books

Louis Bayard, The School of Night (2011), a thriller about a present-day Elizabethan scholar hired to find a missing letter from the early seventeenth century, and British astronomer Thomas Harriot during the year after Queen Elizabeth's death. Review

Ronan Bennett, Havoc in its Third Year (2004), about a coroner in Yorkshire amid the English Civil War who questions the guilt of an Irishwoman his Puritan fellow-governors believe to have murdered her baby.

Susanna Calkins, A Murder at Rosamund's Gate (2013), about a chambermaid for a magistrate who must find out who really murdered a fellow servant after her brother is wrongly accused; #1 in the Lucy Campion mystery series.

Susanna Calkins, From the Charred Remains (2014), about a lady's maid, now apprenticed to a printmaker, who helps investigate when a corpse with a knife in its chest is discovered during the clean-up after the Great Fire of London; #2 in the Lucy Campion mystery series.

Susanna Calkins, The Masque of a Murderer (2015), about an English printer's apprentice who learns a dangerous secret when she listens to a Quaker man’s dying words; #3 in the Lucy Campion mystery series.

Susanna Calkins, A Death Along the River Fleet (2016), about a printer's apprentice who encounters a distraught young woman in a blood-spattered nightdress and learns a dangerous secret as she helps the woman recover; #4 in the Lucy Campion mystery series.

John Dickson Carr, The Devil in Velvet (1951), about a time-traveling professor and his attempt to prevent a murder in Restoration London.

S.J. Deas, The Royalist (2014), about a royalist dragoon sentenced to death who is given a reprieve so he can find a serial killer murdering soldiers in Cromwell's army.

Philip Depoy, The King James Conspiracy (2009), about a monk with a secret past and divided loyalties who is hired by the translators of the King James Bible in 1605 to find out who murdered one of the translators.

Susanna Gregory, A Conspiracy of Violence (2006), about a reluctant spy for King Charles II's feared Secretary of State, John Thurloe; #1 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, Blood on the Strand (2007), about a government spy who must uncover the real murderer of a beggar before an innocent man is hanged; #2 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, The Butcher of Smithfield (2008), about a government spy who attempts to discover the identity of the man behind a notorious London gang; #3 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, The Westminster Poisoner (2009), about a government spy who must find out who poisoned two men during the Christmas festivities in Westminster; #4 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, A Murder on London Bridge (2009), about a government spy who suspects that a murder on London Bridge may be related to a Puritan conspiracy against King Charles II; #5 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, The Body in the Thames (2011), about a government spy whose former brother-in-law's body is found in the Thames amid an atmosphere of hatred against a visiting delegation from the Netherlands; #6 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, The Piccadilly Plot (2012), about a government spy called back to London to investigate petty thefts on his master's estate amid far more serious cases of murder and treasonous scheming; #7 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, Death in St James’s Park (2013), about a government spy who wonders why an incompetent has been put in charge of investigating an explosion near the General Letter Office; #8 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, Murder on High Holborn (2014), about a government official investigating the murder of a Groom of the Robes in a brothel, which he suspects may be connected to a treasonous plot; #9 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, The Cheapside Corpse (2015), about a government official in the court of Charles II who investigates the murder of a banker during a banking crisis that could make it impossible to pay for England's defence against an impending war with the Dutch; #10 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, The Chelsea Strangler (2016), about a government official investigating the strangling murder of a sanatorium inmate in an upper class neighborhood near a college in which Dutch prisoners of war are housed; #11 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, The Executioner of St. Paul's (2017), about a government official investigating the death of a man whose skeleton was found in another man's tomb, amid a plague epidemic that has people fleeing London; #12 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

Susanna Gregory, Intrigue in Covent Garden (2018), about a government official in January 1666 who must simultaneously investigate a physician's death, the sinking of a man-of-war, and a courtier's disappearance, amid a growing threat of war with the Dutch; #13 in the Thomas Chaloner mystery series.

C.C. Humphreys, Fire (2016), about a team of detectives searching for a serial killer in the aftermath of the plague, as the Great Fire of London is about to ignite.

Philip Kerr, Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton (2002), a mystery in which Sir Isaac Newton's work as Warden of the Royal Mint requires him to investigate a case of counterfeiting.

Ross King, Ex-Libris (2001), a literary thriller about a London bookseller's efforts to recover a valuable book for an eccentric widow's library at the risk of his life. Review

Mary Lawrence, The Alchemist's Daughter (2016), about a healer who must clear herself of a murder charge after a client dies, seemingly as a result of taking one of her remedies; #1 in the Bianca Goddard mystery series.

Mary Lawrence, Death of an Alchemist (2016), about a healer searching for a remedy for her husband's illness who must first solve the murder of the alchemist in whose stolen journal the remedy was written down; #2 in the Bianca Goddard mystery series.

Shona MacLean, A Game of Sorrows (2010), a thriller about a Scottish university teacher whose Irish cousin pleads him to come to Ireland to free his family from a bard's curse; #1 in the Alexander Seaton mystery series. Review at The Independent

S.G. MacLean, The Redemption of Alexander Seaton (2013), about a Scottish academic who must clear his friend of a murder charger after an apothecary's assistant dies; #2 in the Alexander Seaton mystery series.

S.G. MacLean, Crucible (2011; also titled Crucible of Secrets), about a Scottish academic who investigates the death of a friend, his university's librarian, in 1631 Aberdeen; #3 in the Alexander Seaton mystery series.

S.G. MacLean, The Devil's Recruit (2013), about a Scottish academic who investigates the death of a young woman whose body is found frozen in a prominent Aberdeen citizen's garden, while the Thirty Years' War rages on the Continent; #4 in the Alexander Seaton mystery series.

S.G. MacLean, The Seeker (2015), about a loyal agent of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and his efforts to track down the killer of a heroic soldier in Cromwell's army; #1 in the Damian Seeker mystery series.

S.G. MacLean, The Black Friar (2017), about a captain in Oliver Cromwell's guard who must find out why children in London have been disappearing, who murdered a man in Dominican robes, and who is the Royalist spy in his own ranks; #2 in the Damian Seeker mystery series.

S.G. MacLean, Destroying Angel (2018), about a loyal agent of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell sent to a small village in the North York moors, a stew of resentments and conflict, where he must find out whether a death is accidental or part of a plot against Cromwell; #3 in the Damian Seeker mystery series.

Edward Marston, The King's Evil (1999), an architect investigates murders in London after the Great Fire of 1666; #1 in the Christopher Redmayne series.

Edward Marston, The Amorous Nightingale (2000), an architect tries to find out who kidnapped the king's favorite mistress and restore her to the king; #2 in the Christopher Redmayne series.

Edward Marston, The Repentant Rake (2001), an architect tries to track down a repentent rake who has turned to murder; #3 in the Christopher Redmayne series.

Edward Marston, The Frost Fair (2003), an architect tries to find out who murdered the corpse under the frozen ice of the Thames during the cold winter of 1669; #4 in the Christopher Redmayne series.

Edward Marston, The Parliament House (2006), an architect tries to find out who murdered a man on the doorstep of the new house he has designed; #5 in the Christopher Redmayne series.

Edward Marston, The Painted Lady (2007), an architect tries to find out who murdered the husband of a beautiful woman while her portrait was being painted; #6 in the Christopher Redmayne series.

Fidelis Morgan, Unnatural Fire (2000), a humorous mystery about a former mistress of Charles II who turns to scandal-sheet journalism with the assistance of her maidservant and stumbles across a murder; #1 in the Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery series.

Fidelis Morgan, The Rival Queens (2001), a humorous mystery about a countess and her maidservant who witness a murder in a concert hall while evading a bailiff; #2 in the Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery series.

Fidelis Morgan, The Ambitious Stepmother (2002), a humorous mystery about a countess and her maidservant who encounter a case of poisoning while in France; #3 in the Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery series.

Fidelis Morgan, Fortune's Slave (2004), a humorous mystery about a countess and her maidservant who attract murderous ruffians when they seek investment advice during a time of frenzied financial speculation; #4 in the Countess Ashby de la Zouche mystery series.

Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost (1998), a literary mystery set amid the aftermath of the English Civil War and featuring the scholars, clerics and common people of Oxford during the scientific revolution. Review

Christi Phillips, The Devlin Diary (2008), a modern Cambridge Fellow and a historian find clues to the murder of a professor in an unsolved case of serial killings in the court of Charles II in 1672; #2 in the Claire Donovan series in which a modern young woman solves mysteries connected with historical events in various times and places.

Elizabeth Redfern, Auriel Rising (2004), about a former mercenary soldier blackmailed into accepting the job of murdering a member of the king's court in 1609 London, where alchemists are busily attempting to turn lead into gold.

Anne Rutherford, The Opening Night Murder (2013), about a woman who opens her own theater after King Charles II decrees that women are allowed to act on the stage, but becomes a murder suspect when someone is killed during the first performance; #1 in the Restoration Murder mystery series.

Anne Rutherford, The Scottish Play Murder (2013), about an actress and theater manager who casts a Scot in the role of Macbeth and, when a murder occurs, has to find out whether the actor is guilty or innocent; #2 in the Restoration Murder mystery series.

Anne Rutherford, The Twelfth Night Murder (2014), about an actress asked to identify a murdered boy whose body is fished out of the Thames; #3 in the Restoration Murder mystery series.

Martin Stephen, The Desperate Remedy: Henry Gresham and the Gunpowder Plot (2003), about a spy in the court of James I who must find out who killed one of his best informers; #1 in the Henry Gresham mystery series.

Martin Stephen, The Conscience of the King: Henry Gresham and the Shakespeare Conspiracy (2003), about a spy in the court of James I asked to track down a valuable handwritten manuscript after Shakespeare abruptly retreats from public life, not realizing he is being used as a pawn to flush out a dangerous madman; #2 in the Henry Gresham mystery series (#3 and #4 are prequels set during the time of Queen Elizabeth I; see the Renaissance section).

Rebecca Stott, Ghostwalk (2007), about the present-day son of a historian found drowned before she could finish her book about Isaac Newton and alchemy, and a series of murders that begin when he asks his lover to ghostwrite the remaining chapters of his mother's book, as the mysteries of the seventeenth century become entangled with those of the present.

Andrew Swanston, The King's Spy (2012), a thriller about a bookseller with an expertise in mathematics who is recruited to work as a cryptographer for Charles I in 1643 amid the English Civil War; #1 in the Thomas Hill trilogy.

Andrew Swanston, The King's Exile (2013), a thriller about a cryptographer for Charles I who is deported to Barbados in 1648 during the English Civil War; #2 in the Thomas Hill trilogy.

Andrew Swanston, The King's Return (2014), a thriller about a former cryptographer for Charles I who, following the end of Cromwell's Protectorate, is asked to decipher coded letters that may be part of a plot against Charles II; #3 in the Thomas Hill trilogy.

Andrew Taylor, Ashes of London (2016), a thriller about a government informer charged with hunting down the killer of someone whose body was found in the ashes of St. Paul's Cathedral after the Great Fire of London.

Sam Thomas, The Midwife’s Tale (2013), about a midwife during the English Civil War who helps a friend accused of poisoning her husband delay the execution date by claiming she is pregnant, in order to gain time to find the real killer; #1 in the Bridget Hodgson and Martha Hawkins mystery series.

Sam Thomas, The Harlot’s Tale (2014), about a midwife and her assistant who investigate serial killings in 1645 York, controlled by Puritans who have embarked on a bloody purge of sinners; #2 in the Bridget Hodgson and Martha Hawkins mystery series.

Sam Thomas, The Midwife and the Assassin (2016), about a midwife and her assistant forced to become spies for Oliver Cromwell when they travel to London, where they are soon involved in a murder investigation; #3 in the Bridget Hodgson and Martha Hawkins mystery series.

Betsy Tobin, Bone House (2000), about a young maid who sets out to learn who murdered a well-liked young prostitute in her English village in 1603.

Leonard Tourney, Time's Fool (2004), as an old man, William Shakespeare is forced to turn sleuth after his former love, the "dark mistress" of his sonnets, tries to blackmail him.

L.C. Tyler, A Cruel Necessity (2014), about a young lawyer who investigates the murder of a Royalist spy in 1657 in Cromwell's England; #1 in the John Grey mystery series.

L.C. Tyler, A Masterpiece of Corruption (2015), about a young lawyer in Cromwell's London who responds to a letter that involves him in an assassination plot, and tries to protect himself by informing on the conspirators; #2 in the John Grey mystery series.

Continental Europe and North America in the 17th Century

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Evelyn Anthony, Anne of Austria (1968), a biographical novel about Anne of Austria, the wife of the French king Louis XIII and mother of Louis XIV.

John Banville, Kepler (1981), about the German mathematician who discovered the elliptical orbit of Mars.

Ronald Bassett, Witchfinder General (1966), a novel about Matthew Hopkins, who tortured and prosecuted witches during the seventeenth century English Civil War; the 1968 horror movie Witchfinder General is supposed to have been based on this novel.

A.L. Berridge, Honour and the Sword (2010), about the only surviving son of a French nobleman who must defend the people on his estate when the Thirty Years' War spills into his lands.

A. L. Berridge, In the Name of the King (2011), a swashbuckler about a young French nobleman who attracts the enmity of a gang of treasonous conspirators during the Thirty Years' War; sequel to Honour and the Sword. Review

Joseph Boyden, The Orenda (2014), about a French Jesuit on a mission in North America who becomes a captive of the Huron Indians.

Jessie Burton, The Miniaturist (2014), about an Amsterdam merchant's young wife whose wedding gift, a miniature replica of their home, begins to predict sinister future events.

Carrie Callaghan, A Light of Her Own (2018), about artist Judith Leyster, a Catholic in 1630s Holland where Catholicism is banned, and her ambition to become the first woman admitted to the Haarlem painters guild.

Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock, about an apothecary's daughter in seventeenth-century Quebec. Review

Tracy Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring, about a servant girl who works for the artist Vermeer in seventeenth-century Holland. See more novels about artists

Andrei Codrescu, The Blood Countess, about Elizabeth Bathory, a seventeenth-century Hungarian countess who murdered young women to bathe in their blood.

Libby Cone, Flesh and Grass (2011), about the blind son of the founder of a Dutch Mennonite community in Colonial Delaware; self-published, available as an ebook.

Thomas B. Costain, High Towers, about a boy and girl in French Montreal who fall in love when they are young and later settle in New Orleans.

Francesco da Mosto, The Black King (2011 in the U.K.), about a former student of Giordano Bruno, recently executed for heresy, who is arrested in Venice and ordered to find and destroy an ancient, heretical manuscript before Queen Elizabeth of England's astrologer John Dee finds it.

Daniel Defoe, Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720), a novel written in the form of a memoir by an English mercenary who fought in the armies of the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus and the English King Charles I from 1632 to 1648 during the latter part of the Thirty Years War.

Brian Deming, Wind Time, Wolf Time, about a brother and sister during the Thirty Years War in early seventeenth century Germany.

Diane M. Denton, A House Near Luccoli (2012), about an unmarried woman in her thirties in seventeenth-century Genoa who becomes friends with the musician Alessandro Stradella as he attempts to revive his career after a scandal.

Suzanne Desrochers, Bride of New France (2012), about a young French woman sent to Canada to marry a farmer, and her struggle to survive after he abandons her.

Kim Devereux, Rembrandt’s Mirror (2015), about a naive young maid from a Calvinist family who comes to work for Rembrandt after his wife's death and is shocked to discover he is on intimate terms with his housekeeper.

Henrietta Drake-Brockman, The Wicked and the Fair (1957), about the 1629 shipwreck of the Batavia off the coast of Australia and the subsequent mutiny by a small group of sailors who murdered many of the survivors.

Henry C. Duggan, III, Silver's Odyssey (2012), about a Spanish soldier shipwrecked on the Atocha galleon of 1622 who makes a four-year trek from Florida's southern coast to St. Augustine; self-published.

Alexandre Dumas, The Black Tulip (1850), about a man obsessed with growing a rare black tulip who is imprisoned after being falsely accused of treason by a rival.

Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers (1844), about three musketeers in the French king's service and their young companion, pitted against the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu and a beautiful spy; #1 in the Three Musketeers series.

Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After (1845), about four swordsmen who come out of retirement to save France from a traitor; #2 in the Three Musketeers series.

Alexandre Dumas, The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847), about the four French companions of The Three Musketeers, who become involved in the efforts of Charles II to regain the throne of England; #3 in the Three Musketeers series.

Alexandre Dumas, Louise de la Valliere (1847), about the four companions of The Three Musketeers, who become involved in the intrigues surrounding Louis XIV and his romantic affairs; #4 in the Three Musketeers series.

Alexandre Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask (1847), about the four companions of The Three Musketeers, whose loyalties come into conflict when one of them becomes involved in a plot to overthrow the corrupt King Louis XIV; #5 in the Three Musketeers series.

Susanne Dunlap, Emilie’s Voice, about a beautiful singer in seventeenth century Paris and Versailles.

Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before, set in seventeenth-century Paris during the age of astronomical discoveries.

Arabella Edge, The Company, about a disastrous 1629 voyage of the Dutch East India Company.

Peter H. Fogtdal, The Tsar's Dwarf (2006 in the original Danish, first English edition 2008), about a female dwarf from Copenhagen who is given to Peter the Great as a gift from the Danish king.

Kate Forsyth, Bitter Greens (2014), about seventeenth-century French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force, banished to a convent after falling into disfavor at court, and her inspiration for the tale of Rapunzel.

Kelly Gardiner, Goddess (2015), about the French swordswoman and opera singer Julie d’Aubigny, also known as La Maupin, who becomes the lover of many of the most famous men and women of her time, but dies in a convent at age 33.

Kathleen O'Neal Gear, This Widowed Land (1993), about a Huron Indian woman who can see the future and a French missionary in seventeenth-century Quebec.

Mary Gentle, A Sundial in a Grave: 1610, about an impoverished aristocrat who acts as a spy for the French finance minister in 1610 as a plot to assassinate King James I of England is being hatched.

Guinevere Glasfurd, The Words in my Hand (2016), about Helena Jans, the servant to a bookshop owner, and the philosopher René Descartes.

Nicolai Gogol, Taras Bulba (1842), a novella about a Cossack and his two sons who join an uprising against Poland.

Anne Golon, Angelique: Marquise of the Angels, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter who joins the local peasant children in their games; #1 in the Angelique series (originally published in a single volume with The Road to Versailles under the pen name Sergeanne Golon).

Anne Golon, Angelique: The Road to Versailles, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter who wins favor at court; #2 in the Angelique series (originally published in a single volume with Marquise of the Angels).

Anne Golon, Angelique and the King , about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter in the court of the Sun King at Versailles; #3 in the Angelique series.

Anne Golon, Angelique and the Sultan (also titled Angelique in Barbary ), about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave; #4 in the Angelique series.

Anne Golon, Angelique in Revolt , about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter who comes into conflict with the French king during the Huguenot rebellion; #5 in the Angelique series.

Anne Golon, Angelique in Love, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter who flees France and sails to America; #6 in the Angelique series.

Anne Golon, The Countess Angelique (originally published in two parts in 1966 as Land of the Redskins and Prisoner of the Mountains), about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter in the wilderness of North America; #7 in the Angelique series.

Anne Golon, The Temptation of Angelique, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter in North America during the hostilities between the Indians and the English settlers; #8 in the Angelique series.

Anne Golon, Angelique and the Demon , about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter in North America; #9 in the Angelique series.

Anne Golon, Angelique and the Ghosts, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter journeys to Quebec; the author feels this is misnamed in English, as the literal translation of the French title would be "Conspiracy of Shadows"; #10 in the Angelique series.

Günter Grass, The Meeting at Telgte (original German edition 1981; English translation 1990), about a German poet who invites a group of his literary colleagues to join him in a small Westphalian town to observe and discuss the negotiations there in 1647 which ended the Thirty Years War.

Michael Gruber, The Forgery of Venus, about a modern artist who finds himself plunged into the world of the seventeenth century painter Velázquez. See more novels about artists

Maria Gudin, Open Sea (2018), about a young man in 17th-century Spain who turns to privateering after he returns from war at sea to find his home burned and his family slaughtered.

Sandra Gulland, Mistress of the Sun (2008), about Louise de la Valliere, the remarkable horsewoman who became the first mistress of King Louis XIV of France. Review

Sandra Gulland, The Shadow Queen (2014), about Claude des Oeillets, an actress who became a companion to Louis XIV's mistress Athénaïs and a target for Athénaïs's enemies. Review or Author Interview

Joanne Harris, Holy Fools (2004), about a widow and former actress who seeks shelter in a remote Breton convent, only to be confronted with a sinister figure out of her past after the abbess dies and is replaced.

Kathryn Harrison, A Thousand Orange Trees (1995; also titled Poison), about two women born on the same day in 1661, one a niece of Louis XIV, the other the daughter of a silk grower, and the parallel lives they live in Spain during the Inquisition.

Kathryn Heyman, The Accomplice (2004), about a young woman who survived the 1629 shipwreck of the Batavia and became the mistress of one of the mutineers who murdered other survivors.

Margaret Irwin, The Stranger Prince (1937), about Rupert of the Rhine, a German prince who fought for the Royalists in the English Civil War, earning the nickname "the Mad Cavalier."

Marci Jefferson, Enchantress of Paris (2015), about Marie Mancini, brought by her uncle Cardinal Mazarin to the court of Louis XIV, who falls in love with her.

Rebecca Johns, The Countess (2010), about the Hungarian Countess Erzsebet Bathory, a serial killer of young women.

Jane Johnson, Crossed Bones (2010; titled The Tenth Gift in the U.S.), about a young Cornishwoman kidnapped by Barbary pirates to be sold as a slave in seventeenth-century Morocco and the modern London woman who discovers her diary.

Mor (or Maurus) Jokai, The Golden Age in Transylvania (1852; also titled Midst the Wild Carpathians), about a nobleman reluctantly raised to power by the Turks in seventeenth-century Transylvania.

Elizabeth Kales, The Silk Weaver's Daughter (2011), about a silk weaver who must flee France with his family when Louis XIV threatens the lives of the Huguenots; self-published.

Michael Kernan, The Lost Diaries of Frans Hals (1995), about a graduate student who finds a set of centuries-old notebooks in a garage and becomes absorbed in translating what seem to be the diaries of the seventeenth century Dutch painter Frans Hals.

Karleen Koen, Before Versailles (2011), about Louis XIV of France as a young king in 1661.

Rosalind Laker, Sail a Jewelled Ship, about the builders of a ship and the women who loved them in seventeenth-century Sweden.

Rosalind Laker, The Golden Tulip, about a fictional woman apprentice to the Dutch artist Jan Vermeer.

Rosalind Laker, To Dance With Kings (1989), a family saga about four generations of women beginning with a fan-maker's daughter who joins the court at Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV.

Alexandra Lapierre, Artemisia, about the seventeenth century Italian woman painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell (1943-1946 in the original Icelandic three-part series; first English edition, 2003), about an accused petty thief in seventeenth-century Iceland, then ruled by Denmark, who makes an off-color joke about the Danish king and becomes a fugitive.

Tobsha Learner, The Witch of Cologne (2003), about a Jewish midwife accused by the Inquisition in the seventeenth-century German city of Cologne.

Norah Lofts, Silver Nutmeg (1947), about a Dutch spice merchant in the Dutch East Indies and the bride he rejects after he discovers that, since he last saw her, an illness has ravaged her great beauty.

Hermann Löns, The Warwolf: A Peasant Chronicle of the Thirty Years War (1910, first English translation 2006), about a German peasant farmer and his struggle to protect his community during the Thirty Years War.

Stephen Marlowe, The Death and Life of Miguel De Cervantes (1996), about the author of the seventeenth century Spanish classic Don Quixote, who survived war and a life as a captive in Algiers before he began to write.

Jim McFarlane, Penelope (2012), about a young Amsterdam woman who journeys to New Amsterdam in the 1640s; self-published.

Arthur Meeker, The Ivory Mischief, about two seventeenth-century Frenchwomen whose lives take different directions.

Sarah Emily Miano, Van Rijn (2006), about a young publisher in 1667 Amsterdam who arranges to meet the aging artist Rembrandt van Rijn, and a woman poet whose fascination with the artist matches the publisher's. See more novels about artists

Deborah Moggach, Tulip Fever, about a Dutch painter in seventeenth century Amsterdam. See more novels about artists

Donna Russo Morin, The Secret of the Glass (2010), about a young woman on the Venetian Island of Murano who is secretly learning the art of glassmaking, forbidden to women. Review

Donna Russo Morin, The Courtier's Secret (2009), an adventure novel about a woman who lives a double life at the court of Louis XIV, sometimes as a woman and sometimes disguised as a swordsman who fights alongside a pair of musketeers.

Sallie Muirden, Revelations of a Spanish Infanta (1996), about the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez and the 12-year-old infanta he paints in 1650. See article on Historical Novels about Artists.

Sophie Perinot, Médicis Daughter (2015), about Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Catherine de Médicis, and her struggle between obedience to her dangerous family and her own conscience.

Sarah Perry, Melmoth (2018), about a present-day woman in Prague and what she learns from documents beginning in the 17th century about the life of a woman doomed to wander as an immortal after the Crucifixion.

Pierre Pevel, The Cardinal's Blades (2009), swashbuckling historical fantasy about a swordsman summoned by Cardinal Richelieu to protect France from its enemies in Spain and the Court of Dragons, where dragons, tame and wild, exist alongside humans.

J.B. Pick, The Last Valley (1959), about a soldier during the Thirty Years War who happens across a village untouched by its ravages and, when soldiers from an opposing army coverge on the village, strikes a bargain with them to remain in the village over the winter; a 1971 movie starring Michael Caine and Omar Sharif was based on this novel.

Donald Michael Platt, Rocamora (2008), about the spiritual director of the Spanish Infanta, set in seventeenth century Spain and Amsterdam.

Annie Proulx, Barkskins (2016), about two young Frenchmen who emigrate to New France (which would become the Louisiana Territory), where they become woodcutters, and the travels and harrowing lives of their descendents over the next 300 years in North America, Europe, China, and New Zealand.

Heather Richardson, Magdeburg (2010), about a family in the besieged Protestant city of Magdeburg during the Thirty Years' War.

Frederic Richaud, Gardener to the King (2001), about the gardener at Louis XIV's Versailles.

Carme Riera, In the Last Blue, about Conversos (Spanish Jews who converted to Catholicism) on the Island of Majorca during the time of the Spanish Inquisition.

Judith Merkle Riley, The Oracle Glass (1994), about a young woman in seventeenth-century Paris who makes her living masquerading as a 150-year-old sorceress.

Frances Sherwood, The Book of Splendor, about Prague during the seventeenth-century reign of Rudolph II.

Nina Siegal, The Anatomy Lesson (2014), about the Dutch artist Rembrandt and people connected with his painting "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp." Review

Henryk Sienkiewicz, With Fire and Sword (1884), about heroic knights who fight to preserve Polish unity when an alliance of Cossacks, Tatars and peasants rebel; #1 in the Polish trilogy. Review

Henryk Sienkiewicz, The Deluge (1886), about heroic Polish knights during a war between Poland and Sweden; #2 in the Polish trilogy.

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Fire in the Steppe (1887), (also titled Colonel Wolodyjowski), about a courageous husband and wife who fight to preserve Polish unity; #3 in the Polish trilogy.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Slave (1962), about a seventeenth-century Polish Jew forced into slavery after an uprising who regains his freedom and falls in love with a Christian.

Goce Smilevski, Conversation with Spinoza: A Cobweb Novel (2003 in the original Macedonian; English translation 2006), about the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza.

Dominic Smith, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos (2016), about a female painter in seventeenth-century Holland, the owner of her last painting in the 1950s who discovers it has been replaced with a forgery, and an art forger.

Sherri Smith, The Children of Witches (2010), about a German tavern-keeper's wife whose afflicted younger son is accused of witchcraft.

Josef Svátek, The Memoirs of a Prague Executioner (1905), about the life of an executioner in Prague, the capital of Bohemia, during the Thirty Years War.

Beverly Swerling, City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan, about immigrants to New York in 1661.

Rupert Thomson, Secrecy (2013), about the Sicilian sculptor Gaetano Giulio Zumbo, who specialized in tableaux of the dead and dying, and his patron, the Florentine Grand Duke Cosimo III. Review

Greta van der Rol, Die A Dry Death (2010), about the crew and passengers of an Amsterdam merchant ship wrecked on a reef off the Australian coast, and the brutal tyrant who lords it over the survivors.

Richard Vetere, Baroque (2009), about a young painter and four other men who come to Rome in 1600 and their common experience of being painted by Caravaggio.

Susan Vreeland, Girl in Hyacinth Blue (1999), a series of linked short stories which follow a Vermeer painting back through time to its genesis in seventeenth century Holland. Review

Judith K. White, The Seventh Etching (2012), about an orphaned gypsy in Amsterdam who holds the clue to a missing etching and is later painted by Rembrandt; self-published.

Mysteries and Thrillers: 17th Century European Continent and North America

Purchase from the Book Depository, Amazon or Powell's Books

David Liss, The Coffee Trader (2003), a thriller about a Jewish merchant in 1659 Amsterdam who has lost everything in a collapse of the sugar market but tries to make it up speculating in coffee, an exotic new commodity.

Maan Meyers, The Dutchman (1992), a Dutch sheriff on Manhattan Island in 1664 investigates what seems to be the suicide of a tavern owner as English ships in the harbor threaten Dutch possession of the island; #1 in the Dutchman Chronicles mystery series.

Maan Meyers, The Dutchman's Dilemma (1996), in 1675, a former sheriff with a Dutch background is happily settled down as husband, businessman and father in 1675 New York when a murder unleashes talk of witchcraft, and his wife seems to be targeted as the next victim; #4 published in the Dutchman Chronicles mystery series (#2 in order of setting).

Maan Meyers, The Kingsbridge Plot (1994), a young surgeon with a Dutch background in New York at the beginning of the Revolution discovers a plot to assassinate General George Washington when he looks into a case of murder; #2 published in the Dutchman Chronicles mystery series (#3 in order of setting).

Maan Meyers, The High Constable (1995), in 1808, a middle-aged doctor with a Dutch background assists New York's High Constable in investigating murder and corruption in high places; #3 published in the Dutchman Chronicles mystery series (#4 in order of setting).

Maan Meyers, The Lucifer Contract (1993), a New York reporter with Dutch ancestry teams up with an attractive barmaid to foil Confederate plotters in 1864; #5 published in the Dutchman Chronicles mystery series (#5 in order of setting).

Maan Meyers, The House on Mulberry Street (1997), a police detective with Dutch ancestry in 1895 New York investigates the murder of a journalist, to which an attractive woman photographer seems linked; #5 published in the Dutchman Chronicles mystery series (#6 in order of setting).

Maan Meyers, The Organ Grinder (2008), a New York policeman with Dutch ancestry investigates a series of murders in 1899 and begins to wonder whether the woman he loves, a photographer with a social conscience who has been photographing streetwalkers, may be targeted; #7 published in the Dutchman Chronicles mystery series (#7 in order of setting). Review

Arturo Perez-Reverte, Captain Alatriste (1996 in the original Spanish; 2005 in English), a literary swashbuckler about a Spanish swordsman hired by a mysterious stranger to ambush a pair of traveling Englishmen; #1 in the Captain Alatriste series.

Arturo Perez-Reverte, Purity of Blood (1997 in the original Spanish; 2006 in English), about a Spanish swordsman whose mission to rescue a young woman imprisoned in a convent takes a frightening turn when his thirteen-year-old ward is threatened by the Inquisition; #2 in the Captain Alatriste series.

Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Sun Over Breda (1998 in the original Spanish; 2007 in English), about a Spanish swordsman who rejoins his old regiment as Catholic Spain fights against the Dutch Calvinists; #3 in the Captain Alatriste series.

Arturo Perez-Reverte, The King's Gold (2000 in the original Spanish; 2008 in English), about a Spanish swordsman hired to protect a galleon and its cargo of gold; #4 in the Captain Alatriste series.

Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Man in the Yellow Doublet (2003 in the original Spanish; 2009 in English; titled The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet in the U.S.), about a swashbuckling swordsman who, in love with an actress with whom King Philip IV is also enamored, stumbles across a plot to assassinate the king; #5 in the Captain Alatriste series.

Arturo Perez-Reverte, Pirates of the Levant (2006 in the original Spanish; 2010 in English), about a Spanish swordsman who sets sail as a mercenary on a Spanish galleon in the company of his seventeen-year-old foster son; #6 in the Captain Alatriste series.

Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Siege (2013), about a Spanish swordsman who, during Napoleon's war against Spain, must find a gory serial killer who leaves his victims near the sites where French bombs have fallen; #7 in the Captain Alatriste series. Review at The Guardian

Christi Phillips, The Rossetti Letter (2007), a modern university student researching her Ph.D. thesis about a seventeenth-century courtesan encounters a dangerous rival when she goes to Venice to solve a centuries-old mystery; #2 in the Claire Donovan series in which a modern young woman solves mysteries connected with historical events in various times and places.

Oliver Pötzsch, The Hangman's Daughter (2008 in the original German; English translation by Lee Chadeayne 2010), about a German executioner convinced of the innocence of a midwife accused of witchcraft and the murder of a child; #1 in the Hangman's Daughter mystery series. Review

Oliver Pötzsch, The Dark Monk (2009 in the original German; English translation by Lee Chadeayne 2012), about a hangman, his daughter, and the son of a physician who try to find out who poisoned the parish priest in a Bavarian town; #2 in the Hangman's Daughter mystery series.

Matt Rees, A Name in Blood (2012), a mystery novel about the Italian artist Caravaggio, who must flee Italy after he kills a man in a duel.

Judith Rock, The Rhetoric of Death (2010), about a Paris dance teacher who sets out to investigate when one of his students goes missing; #1 in the Charles du Luc mystery series.

Judith Rock, The Eloquence of Blood (2011), about a Jesuit at the French court who teaches dance and rhetoric and must find out who killed a young heiress whose murder is being blamed on Jesuit; #2 in the Charles du Luc mystery series.

Judith Rock, A Plague of Lies (2012), about a Paris teacher of rhetoric who persists in trying to find out who killed two of his students, despite being ordered to stop; #3 in the Charles du Luc mystery series.

Judith Rock, The Whispering of Bones (2013), about a former soldier, now a novice Jesuit, who wants to investigate the murder of another novice but is told not to; #4 in the Charles du Luc mystery series.

Francesco Sorti, Imprimatur (2008), a thriller about a plot to assassinate the pope in 1683.

Jean Zimmerman, The Orphanmaster (2012), about a young woman merchant and a British spy in 1663 New Amsterdam whose investigation into a case of missing children is hampered when she is accused of being a witch and he is arrested for spying.

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