Historical fiction, specifically historical mysteries, is my favorite category whether I’m reading for pleasure or writing my own stories, and the decade of the Roaring Twenties is certainly the most colorful era in American history. As a historian, I want to learn; as a writer, I want to teach. But—and this is a big “but”—it’s critical that historical novels are both accurate and subtle. If I find the author has misrepresented the history or larded the story, I’m done. Which is why I can recommend the following five Roaring Twenties series. All feature characters that grow as the series progresses so it’s best to begin at the beginning and proceed mostly in order.
Phryne Fisher’s 21 mysteries take place in Australia, which means they lack the extra criminal/cultural dimension that Prohibition gave the US in the 1920s. However, while Australia did not prohibit alcohol consumption, there was still plenty of crime, gangsters, jazz, and flapper fashion to spice up every murder investigation. Miss Fisher, who through accident has inherited both title and fortune, stylishly sleuths her way through Melbourne’s underworld. Her adventures are relatively short and a fast read, but if you tire of reading, you can watch Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries on television. I enjoy comparing books to movies—which is better? For me it’s usually the book, but still fun seeing the film version.
Bored socialite Phryne Fisher leaves the tedium of the London season for adventure in Australia!
Tea-dances in West End hotels, weekends in the country with guns and dogs... Phryne Fisher - she of the grey-green eyes and diamante garters - is rapidly tiring of the boredom of chit-chatting with retired colonels and foxtrotting with weak-chinned wonders. Instead, Phryne decides it might be amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective - on the other side of the world!
As soon as she books into the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, drug smuggling…
The 17 Maisie Dobbs books are set mostly in England during the 1930s but they do begin in the late 1920s, so I include them in this list. A girl from a poor family, Maisie begins her working life at thirteen as a housemaid, then works her way from servant to scholar to nurse to psychologist and investigator. The psychological trauma of the Great War (1914-1918), which was supposed to end all wars, pervades these books. The period detail will pull you into the mystery every time.
A favorite mystery series of Hillary Clinton (as mentioned in What Happened, The New York Times Book Review, and New York Magazine) A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Agatha Award Winner for Best First Novel Macavity Award Winner for Best First Novel Alex Award Winner
Fiercely independent Maisie Dobbs has recently set herself up as a private detective. Such a move may not seem especially startling. But this is 1929, and Maisie is exceptional in many ways.
Having started as a maid to the London aristocracy, studied her way to Cambridge and served as a nurse in…
This 17-book series flips history and fiction: instead of fictionalizing a historical character, King’s premise is that a fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, is real. Mary Russell, his much younger investigative apprentice, grows up to become his much younger wife, and together they tackle criminals all over the world. The stories begin in 1915 and move forward in time to the 1930s. King is a terrific writer. I like to cite one passage in particular where she describes Holmes holding his wife’s hand—calling it the best sex scene I’ve ever read is probably only a slight exaggeration. Though it is based in England, the author’s portrayal of life in far-flung places like Morocco and Palestine will make you wish you could travel across the miles as well as back in time.
In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees when a young woman literally stumbles into him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes--and match him wit for wit. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern twentieth-century woman proves a deft protegee and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. But even in their first case together, the pair face a truly cunning adversary who will stop at nothing to put an end to their partnership.
Daisy has solved 23 murder mysteries so far. These Christie-esque plots are set in London, at posh country estates, and in other parts of the British landscape. Daisy works as a journalist—an unusual job for a young woman in the ‘20s, especially one who is aristocratic and wealthy and, therefore, shouldn’t be working at all. Her assignments and social connections inevitably entangle her in murder investigations, which she solves with the help of a competent Scotland Yard inspector who in later books becomes her husband.
No stranger to sprawling country estates, well-heeled Daisy Dalrymple is breaking new ground at Wentwater Court to cover a story for Town & Country magazine. But her interview gives way to interrogation when suave Lord Stephen Astwick meets a chilly end on the tranquil skating pond.
With evidence that his death was anything but accidental, Daisy joins forces with Scotland Yard so the culprit can't slip through their fingers like the unfortunate Astwick slipped through the ice ...
Praise for The Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries:
'Appropriate historical detail and witty dialogue are the finishing touches on this engaging 1920s period piece.'…
Okay, this one is a stretch because it takes place during the years just prior to the Roaring Twenties. But it’s such a winner, I couldn’t resist including it. Stewart is a gifted writer and her research is impeccable. I was fascinated to learn that, unlike the fictional characters in the books mentioned above, the three Kopp sisters were very real. Constance Kopp was New Jersey’s first female deputy sheriff and her sisters led similarly unusual lives for their time. Her notes at the end where she explains her research are, for me, as entertaining as the story itself. So far the Kopp sisters have seven books, and I’m betting that the eighth will push the timeline into the 1920s. Do not miss this marvelously entertaining historical series!
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Drunken Botanist comes an enthralling novel based on the forgotten, true story of one of the US's first female deputy sheriffs.
Constance Kopp doesn't quite fit the mould. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters from the city to the country fifteen years before. When a powerful, ruthless factory owner runs down their buggy, a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he…
It's 1924, and Maddie Pastore has it made. A nice house, a loving husband with a steady job - even if it is connected to Chicago's violent Torrio-Capone gang - and a baby on the way. But then Tommy is shot dead, and she learns her husband had a secret.
Penniless and grieving, Maddie is only sure of two things: that she will survive for the sake of her baby, and that she'll never turn to the mob for help. So when she's invited to assist a well-meaning but fraudulent medium, she seizes the chance. When Maddie unearths potential evidence of a dark crime she faces a terrible dilemma: keep quiet and let a murderer go unpunished, or follow the trail and put herself and her baby in danger . . .
I once saw a play at the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Theatre. A play about Sor Juana. It was a good play, but it felt like something was missing like jalapenos left out of enchiladas. The play kept nudging me to look further to find Sor Juana, and so for the next five years, I did so. I read and read more. I listened for her voice, and that is where I heard her life come alive. This isn’t the only possibility for Sor Juana’s life; it is just the one I heard.
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, this brilliant 17th century nun flew through Mexico City on the breeze of poetry and philosophy. She met with princes of the Church, and with the royalty of Spain and Mexico. Then she met a stunning, powerful woman with lavender eyes, la Vicereine Maria Louisa, and her life changed forever. As her fame grew, she dared to challenge the diabolical Archbishop once too often, and he threw her in front of the Inquisition, where she stood, alone.
Sor Juana's work is studied still today, and justifiably so. Scholars study her months on end; mystics…
This astonishingly brilliant 17th century poet and dramatist, this nun, flew through Mexico City on wings of inspiration. Having no dowry, she chose the life of a nun so that she might learn, so that she might write, so that she might meet the most fascinating people of the western world. She accomplished all of that, and more.
One day a woman with violet eyes, eyes the color of passion flowers, entered her life. It was the new Vicereine, Maria Luisa. As the two most powerful women in Mexico City, the bond between them crossed politics and wound them in…
