Some modern mystery writers use historic settings to add atmosphere in their stories. Take, for example, Steve Hockensmith’s Holmes on the Range, the first book in a series featuring the Amlingmeyer brothers, Big Red and Old Red, two cowboys working on an 1892 Montana cattle ranch. Big Red spends the long nights on the range reading Sherlock Holmes stories aloud to his brother. When one ranch hand is murdered and another trampled, they adopt their hero’s detecting skills to uncover the truth. Find the Holmes on the Range series and other historical mysteries at the Lititz Public Library.
The Accusers by Lindsey Davis
In 75 A.D. a Roman sleuth becomes caught up in the trial of a senator, a case that is complicated by the senator’s apparent suicide and a confrontation with forces in the Roman legal system.
The Widow’s Tale by Margaret Frazer
Grieving over the death of her husband and falling prey to the schemes of her spouse’s greedy relatives, in 15th century England a widow is banished to a Benedictine convent where she enlists the aid of a nun.
Demon of the Air by Simon Levack
The Aztec emperor’s chief minister sends his slave, a disgraced priest, on a mission to discover why the war god’s intended human sacrifice committed suicide.
The Price of Murder by Bruce Alexander
When the body of a seven-year-old girl is found in the Thames, a magistrate of Bow Street Court begins a search that leads to dead witnesses and evidence that the murders are tied to the upper echelons of society.
Rebels of Babylon by Owen Parry
After a Yankee heiress is murdered in Civil War-era, Union-occupied New Orleans, a prim detective launches an investigation that leads him from the French Quarter to nearby plantations.
The Midwife’s Tale by Sam Thomas
In 1644, with civil war erupting in England, a midwife vows to discover the real murderer of an ostentatious Puritan before his convicted wife is burned at the stake.
A Medal for Murder by Frances Brody
While investigating a pawn shop robbery in 1922 Harrogate, a WWI widow stumbles across a body at the theater.
Hush Now, Don’t You Cry by Rhys Bowen
A newly married private detective and her police-captain husband reluctantly honeymoon in 1904 Newport at the estate of an ambitious Tammany Hall politician who is soon found poisoned.
A Dark Anatomy by Robin Blake
In 1740, when a Lancashire squire’s wife is found with her throat slashed the coroner is called to the scene.
Death’s Door by James R. Benn
The head of the OSS sends an Allied intelligence agent to investigate the murder of an American monsignor found in German-occupied Rome.
Target Lancer by Max Allan Collins
In late October 1963, a private investigator wonders if a CIA-back plot run by the mob to poison Castro has anything to do with the death of a Chicago public relations man.
Death and the Maiden by Frank Tallis
A fin de siècle Viennese psychoanalyst joins a police detective to investigate foul play when a scandalous opera star dies from a suspicious laudanum overdose.
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Originally published on June 21, 2013 in the Lititz Record Express.