The best books about spunky women in historical mayhem who nevertheless persisted

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been known to read a book a day, and I read widely: all the classics, mystery and suspense, science fiction, future fiction, and fantasy. My favorite novels in any genre take me to a place or time far away. My favorite characters are like hobbits; they are caught up in big adventures but fun to have a beer with and don’t take themselves too seriously. And all the protagonists in the novels I have chosen are women, because women my age have spent enough time reading about men who have adventures. 


I wrote...

In Sunshine or in Shadow

By Rhys Bowen, Clare Broyles,

Book cover of In Sunshine or in Shadow

What is my book about?

Summer 1908: Molly Murphy Sullivan has left the city for the summer to escape typhoid. She seeks diversion and cooler weather in the Catskills, where she meets professional women in a bohemian community, a handsome park ranger of the newly formed Catskill State Park, a surly bluestone mine owner, her friend Sid’s Jewish family who live in an early bungalow community, and a murderer! When a member of their circle is murdered, and Sid’s cousin is suspected, Molly must jump into action to find the real killer. 

The history and the beauty of the Catskills are the backdrop for this mystery. This book can be read as a standalone, but readers of the Molly Murphy series will enjoy returning to their favorite characters. 

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Death at Greenway

Clare Broyles Why did I love this book?

I loved this book because of its setting: during World War II, in the house of Agatha Christie.

We follow the heroine as she escapes the bombs of London to take care of children in an unfamiliar countryside and a large manor house. She is keeping secrets about her past, as is every other character!

The novel uses multiple points of view, so we, as readers, slowly learn about the lies everyone is telling. The war provides the perfect backdrop and raises the stakes as the murderer might not just be a killer but a fifth-column member, helping the Germans win the war. 

By Lori Rader-Day,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Death at Greenway as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Irresistible... a Golden Age homage, an elegantly constructed mystery that on every page reinforces the message that everyone counts." -New York Times Book Review

AGATHA AWARD WINNER!

Recommended by New York Times Book Review * Wall Street Journal * Parade * Country Living * Chicago Tribune * South Florida Sun-Sentinel * The Free-Lance Star * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * CrimeReads * Nerd Daily * Red Carpet Crash * and many more!

From the award-winning author of The Day I Died and The Lucky One, a captivating suspense novel about nurses during World War II who come to Agatha Christie's holiday…


Book cover of The Lindbergh Nanny

Clare Broyles Why did I love this book?

I loved delving into history in this meticulously researched, well-written novel about the young woman who was the Lindbergh baby’s nanny.

Although I started reading the novel looking for clues as to the kidnappers, the protagonist’s story was so engaging that when the kidnapping actually happened, I was shocked! I had become so wrapped up in the story I forgot I knew how it ended.

If you want a novel to transport you to another time and place, make you forget you have to get up the next day, and keep you up until 2 in the morning reading, this is the one!

By Mariah Fredericks,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Lindbergh Nanny as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Mariah Fredericks's The Lindbergh Nanny is powerful, propulsive novel about America’s most notorious kidnapping through the eyes of the woman who found herself at the heart of this deadly crime.

"A masterful blending of fact and fiction that is as compelling as it is entertaining."―Nelson DeMille

When the most famous toddler in America, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., is kidnapped from his family home in New Jersey in 1932, the case makes international headlines. Already celebrated for his flight across the Atlantic, his father, Charles, Sr., is the country’s golden boy, with his wealthy, lovely wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, by his side.…


Book cover of Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Clare Broyles Why did I love this book?

This Agatha Christie doesn’t feature her famous Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. Instead, it introduces a likable young couple, Bobby and Frankie, who fall into adventure by accident.

This book has the best one-line denouement of all mystery novels. It is a line that will give you chills when you read it. (Or re-read it. This mystery is so good that I have reread it many times in my life, and I get chills each time.)

One question ties the whole mystery together. As a mystery writer, I wish I could find that turning point question for each of my novels. But, alas, Agatha Christie was the queen. 

By Agatha Christie,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Why Didn't They Ask Evans? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When a man plunges down a cliff, two adventurous friends decide to find his killer...

While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. With his final breath the man opens his eyes and says, 'Why didn't they ask Evans?'

Haunted by these words, Bobby and his vivacious companion, Frankie, set out to solve a mystery that will bring them into mortal danger...


Book cover of Doomsday Book

Clare Broyles Why did I love this book?

This book is both future fiction and historical. An Oxford historian journeys back in time and ends up by accident in a plague-filled village in the Middle Ages.

What I love about this novel is the bravery of the characters and their commitment to the good. Willis makes me a believer that humans have not changed much in a thousand years. Ties of love, faith, and humor are the stronghold for confused humans in the past, present, or future, and Willis’ universe is a benevolent one that responds to reward those acts of faith.

Although this book could be classified as science fiction, it is lovingly historical with a deeply researched and rich experience of our past. I absolutely love this book. 

By Connie Willis,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Doomsday Book as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A tour de force" - New York Times Book Review

"Ambitious, finely detailed and compulsively readable" - Locus

"It is a book that feels fundamentally true; it is a book to live in" - Washington Post

For Kivrin Engle, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing a bullet-proof backstory. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received.

But a crisis strangely linking past and…


Book cover of Anywhere You Run

Clare Broyles Why did I love this book?

What I love about historical novels is their ability to transport me into a past that was beyond my imaginings before I read the book.

The harrowing opening scene of this novel is something I could not imagine. But the main character of the novel, a black woman living in the Jim Crow South, has no such luxury. She knows full well the perils of being a black woman in the South. She must fight against deadly sexism and racism to try to claim a life for herself and solve a mystery with ties to a true historical crime.

Wanda Morris writes in a style reminiscent of John Grisham (if he had the life experience of a black woman). Plan to read this over the weekend because once you start, you won’t be able to put it down. 

By Wanda M Morris,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Anywhere You Run as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As Seen on The TODAY Show!

Called One of the Best Crime Novels of the Yearby New York Times * NPR * New York Post * Washington Post * Buzzfeed * South Florida Sun-Sentinel * Library Journal * CrimeReads

From the award-winning author of All Her Little Secrets comes yet another gripping, suspenseful novel where, after the murder of a white man in Jim Crow Mississippi, two Black sisters run away to different parts of the country . . . but can they escape the secrets they left behind?

It’s the summer of 1964 and three innocent men are brutally…


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A Theory of Expanded Love

By Caitlin Hicks,

Book cover of A Theory of Expanded Love

Caitlin Hicks Author Of A Theory of Expanded Love

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

My life and work have been profoundly affected by the central circumstance of my existence: I was born into a very large military Catholic family in the United States of America. As a child surrounded by many others in the 60s, I wrote, performed, and directed family plays with my numerous brothers and sisters. Although I fell in love with a Canadian and moved to Canada, my family of origin still exerts considerable personal influence. My central struggle, coming from that place of chaos, order, and conformity, is to have the courage to live an authentic life based on my own experience of connectedness and individuality, to speak and be heard. 

Caitlin's book list on coming-of-age books that explore belonging, identity, family, and beat with an emotional and/or humorous pulse

What is my book about?

Trapped in her enormous, devout Catholic family in 1963, Annie creates a hilarious campaign of lies when the pope dies and their family friend, Cardinal Stefanucci, is unexpectedly on the shortlist to be elected the first American pope.

Driven to elevate her family to the holiest of holy rollers in the parish, Annie is tortured by her own dishonesty. But when “The Hands” visits her in her bed and when her sister finds herself facing a scandal, Annie discovers her parents will do almost anything to uphold their reputation and keep their secrets safe. 

Questioning all she has believed and torn between her own gut instinct and years of Catholic guilt, Annie takes courageous risks to wrest salvation from the tragic sequence of events set in motion by her parents’ betrayal.

A Theory of Expanded Love

By Caitlin Hicks,


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