Here are 93 books that The Librarian of Crooked Lane fans have personally recommended if you like
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I’ve always loved history, whether ancient or “modern.” Past societies and how humanity has changed over the years has always fascinated me. As a young mystery reader, I began with Nancy Drew and then quickly graduated to Victoria Holt. I’m not sure there’s a gothic fiction reader out there who won’t be familiar with that name. The stories are a wonderful blend of mystery, history, and a dash of the supernatural. Decades later, I’d write my fourth series, Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries, in true gothic Victorian style.
This book is a wonderful blending of historical fiction and fantasy. With an intriguing mystery that isn’t the standard “murder mystery” fair, this book sets up for a fantastical series that will lead the reader deeper and deeper into mystery and magic. I love the mixing of genres and the historical setting.
India Steele is desperate. Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who'll accept her - an enigmatic and mysterious man from America. A man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he's ill.
Matthew Glass must find a particular watchmaker, but he won't tell India why any old one won't do. Nor will he…
Most stories about murder in the Victorian era are set in London. Not all the best mysteries, however, take place there as I have discovered as a long-time reviewer for City Book Review. Some are; some are not. In my own writing, the setting must complement and even amplify the murderous doings being depicted. With this in mind, let me take you on a deadly country-wide tour of mystery, with each of our five stops brightened or darkened by one of my favorite murder stories. Each of them engaged me, mystified me, and, above all, entertained me.
Our next stop is Essex for a classic English village mystery. I knew from the moment I read the opening scene—the grisly discovery of a young man entombed in the crypt of the usually murder-free parish church—that I was going to love the story. And I did.
I was delighted to see how the tranquility of the pastoral scenes—the thatched-roof cottages, the earthy smell of horses in the stable, the square, Norman-style church tower overlooking the village green—carried through the story and beautifully counterpointed the skullduggery at the heart of the mystery.
The quaint village atmosphere heightens the tension in this well-constructed first installment of what promises to be an exciting new mystery series.
When the body of a young man is found stuffed into the tomb of a medieval knight, Parish Constable Daniel Haze is tasked with investigating his first solo murder case. Suspicion instantly falls on the only stranger to arrive in the village of Birch Hill just before the crime took place, but the American captain proves to be an unexpected asset. A former soldier and a skilled surgeon, Jason Redmond is not only willing to assist Haze with the investigation but will risk his own safety to apprehend the killer.With no suspects, no motive, and few leads to follow, Redmond…
I’ve always loved history, whether ancient or “modern.” Past societies and how humanity has changed over the years has always fascinated me. As a young mystery reader, I began with Nancy Drew and then quickly graduated to Victoria Holt. I’m not sure there’s a gothic fiction reader out there who won’t be familiar with that name. The stories are a wonderful blend of mystery, history, and a dash of the supernatural. Decades later, I’d write my fourth series, Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries, in true gothic Victorian style.
Another fabulous London-set book where magic is real! The character of Eliza is a fantastic one to follow through this first book and the series. The web of intrigue will draw you into this alternate-history saga and keep you turning pages way past your bedtime! By now, you probably can tell how much I love magic mixed with the real world, and this book does a fantastic job of blending the two. With a fantastic set of characters, fabulous historical setting, and the mystery of magic, it sets up for a great story and a great series.
London is a powder keg… and Eliza Braxton is the match.
Imagine a London where magic is real… real, but feared. This is Eliza Braxton’s London, and she has always accepted her place in it gladly. As one of the Riftborn, her magic has relegated her to the servant class, where she dutifully serves as the lady’s maid in one of the most powerful households in the country. There, she uses her remarkable powers of persuasion to keep Elder Hallewell’s rebellious daughter in the path to an arranged match of power and prosperity. Eliza has never questioned her loyalty… until…
6-book series set in a haunted roadside inn in 1821 Alabama!
Cassie Fairhope longs for only one thing: to escape her mother’s tyranny. Her plan? Seduce the young man, who is acting as innkeeper while her father is away on business, into marrying her. But Flint Hamilton has his own…
I’ve always loved history, whether ancient or “modern.” Past societies and how humanity has changed over the years has always fascinated me. As a young mystery reader, I began with Nancy Drew and then quickly graduated to Victoria Holt. I’m not sure there’s a gothic fiction reader out there who won’t be familiar with that name. The stories are a wonderful blend of mystery, history, and a dash of the supernatural. Decades later, I’d write my fourth series, Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries, in true gothic Victorian style.
Magic and mystery, what a combination! With a murderer on the loose and a Regency England setting, get ready for manners mixed with magic. On top of that, there’s a dash of romance ala Victoria Holt that’ll keep you glued to the pages! This one really hits a lot of the marks gothic mystery readers will love. The mystery is really strong, and the characters are believable as is the blending of real world with magic. Ms. Oaks does a fantastic job of creating a page-turner that hits all the marks of classic historical, gothic mystery fiction.
Diamonds, Death, and Devonshire tea… in a magical Regency England
Miss Elinor Avely's proper upbringing cannot prepare her for the tiny, spinster vampire who crashes into her sitting room and demands to be fed with a sheep.
Elinor already has enough troubles without having to catch ruminants. First, her secret gift for divining jewels has landed her in scandal, exiling her from London society. Second, a nobleman of dubious repute wants her to find a cache of smuggled jewels, hidden somewhere along the Devon coastline. Last – and worst – she is invited to cream tea at the local manor.…
I love mixing the known with something new and creative–molding two universes in a way that still feels whole and plausible for the reader. Reading is, for me, part entertainment and recreation and also part education. I refuse to divide books into instructive and non-instructive–because broadening my horizon can happen while I enjoy myself. It’s something I treasure in my favorite authors and, therefore, also aim to provide. This requires a certain insight into human nature to build a credible story about how we, as a species, would deal with different circumstances; also the ability and patience to do some proper research before sitting down and shaping it all into a story.
Vampire stories are out there–plenty of them. So many, in fact, that they are starting to bore me. What I find refreshing about these books is that the vampire part takes a back seat–it’s merely a circumstance that reveals the protagonist’s character when suddenly confronted with entirely different circumstances in her life, i.e., becoming a Vampire unplanned.
The protagonist remains true to her ironic and sarcastic self and is still insecure as a person even though she is now super-strong and fast. She learns over time to outgrow some of her less productive behavioral patterns, just as she likely would have as a human.
The first in the Half-Moon Hollow series is “wry, delicious fun” (Susan Andersen, New York Times bestselling author) as it follows a librarian whose life is turned upside down by a tempestuous and sexy vampire.
Maybe it was the Shenanigans gift certificate that put her over the edge. When children’s librarian and self-professed nice girl Jane Jameson is fired by her beastly boss and handed twenty-five dollars in potato skins instead of a severance check, she goes on a bender that’s sure to become Half Moon Hollow legend. On her way home, she’s mistaken for a deer, shot, and left…
Like the widows in The Widows’ Wine Club, I’m getting on. Unlike them, I’ve been a writer for forty years, often hunched over a keyboard, ignoring people. Amazingly, though, I managed to have a happy marriage and make some great friends. Phew! Because I’ve needed friends, especially since my husband died. Looking back, I’m interested to see that I didn’t instantly take to some of my closest buddies. Circumstances threw us together, and we got to know and like and love each other. I explore this in my book.
I love this book because it has everything, believable, engaging characters, a riveting plot, a vivid setting, and a cause. Larger-than-life Margery O’Hare and lady-like Alice are unlikely friends, but friends they become in this great story.
When I first saw photos of those "librarians on horseback," the wonderful women who responded to Eleanor Roosevelt’s call to take books to the rural poor of Kentucky in the depressed 1930s, I longed to know more. Jojo Moyes gives us lots more. There’s an array of well-drawn characters, but it’s Margery and Alice who drive the story forward, defying the odds to achieve their aims and find men who love and appreciate them.
Yes, it’s a love story, too, and a whodunnit? Perfect!
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A REESE WITHERSPOON X HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK
"A great narrative about personal strength and really captures how books bring communities together." -Reese Witherspoon
From the author of The Last Letter from Your Lover, now a major motion picture on Netflix, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond in Depression-era America
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve, hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when…
I’ve been an archivist at Canada’s national archives for more than twenty years. I love my job. Archives are, by their very nature, a collection of miscellany that weren’t created to be preserved or remembered. They are the scraps of paper and hurriedly sent emails produced while the world is out making history. As a result, they offer unselfconscious glimpses into the past. Archives are poorly understood, which means that the folks who decide to devote their professional lives to them are often a little quirky and a bit odd. This makes books featuring archivists celebrations of the off-kilter, the overlooked, and the frankly strange.
A dark meditation on guilt, love, and marriage, it intersperses the story of Matthias, the titular archivist with the life and work of T. S. Eliot, whose letters he’s charged with keeping. When a young scholar wants to read these letters ahead of their scheduled opening, Matthias must wrestle with his own repressed feelings about his past, with some incidents paralleling the poet’s. I enjoyed it for the meditation on how archives can bridge that gap between the past and the present.
A battle of wills between Matt, a careful, orderly archivist for a private university, and Roberta, a determined young poet, over a collection of T.S. Eliot's letters, sealed by bequest until 2019, sparks an unusual friendship and reawakens painful memories of the past
I have seen Degas’ astonishing paintings in the Quai d’Orsy in Paris and his wonderful sculptures of ballerinas. So I was immediately drawn to this book. Like most people who admire his incredible work, I had no idea of the pain suffered by the girls who saw the ballet as a way to rise above their pitiful lives. Nor did I know the stories behind the abuse of Degas’ models. It is difficult when we have to try to separate the works of genius from the horrible things geniuses did.
As a student of history I am impressed with the research that underpins this series, and especially the life of ordinary people in Ireland following the Easter 1916 uprising. The whole Bess Crawford series tells the story of Bess, a strong-willed, independent woman who serves as a battlefield nurse in World War One. She needs all her courage and intelligence to survive then and in all of her ventures. Society’s expectations of women and how they should behave were dramatically changed during and following the Great War. How was it possible to expect a woman who had nursed on battlefields or driven an ambulance through enemy territory to return to a life of ‘proper’ behaviour, of tea and cucumber sandwiches, and absolute obedience to her husband?
An Irish Hostage finds Bess in Ireland at the wedding of a friend, only to become embroiled in the trouble and treachery following the…
"[Readers] are bound to be caught up in the adventures of Bess Crawford . . . While her sensibility is as crisp as her narrative voice, Bess is a compassionate nurse who responds with feeling."- The New York Times Book Review
In the uneasy peace following World War I, nurse Bess Crawford runs into trouble and treachery in Ireland-in this twelfth book in the New York Times bestselling mystery series.
The Great War is over-but in Ireland, in the wake of the bloody 1916 Easter Rising, anyone who served in France is now considered a traitor, including nurse Eileen Flynn…
Though I live in the foothills of the Ozarks, I’m an Anglophile at heart, loving all things Jane Eyre and Jane Austen. I spent much of my angsty adolescence tucked away in Regency and Victorian England with my nose stuck in a book. As a result, I now jump at every chance I get to skip across the pond and roam the English countryside, listening hard to hear all the voices from the past—which is why my stories are always tied to British history. So whether you love ballrooms or shadowy tales set in gothic manors, here’s a great list for you.
Gothic stories are some of my favorite, especially when paired with the English countryside. This one entangles relationships that are sometimes tricky to navigate—much like real life, which I really appreciated. Truth is timeless, and I find that I often learn lessons from historical fiction that help me in my contemporary life. Such is the case for The Vanishing at Loxby Manor. I love how misunderstandings are cleared up between the characters for a very satisfying ending.
A story of second chances and secrets, this mysterious Regency romance will transport you to 19th-century England as one young lady reunites with her childhood love to find his missing sister.
Her friend is missing.
After five years abroad, Charity Halliwell finally returns to Loxby Manor, the home of dear friends-and her lost love. No longer a young girl, she is now haunted by a painful secret and the demise of her dreams. Instead of the healing and happiness she hopes to find, she encounters a darkness lurking in the shadows of the once-familiar house. When her friend, Seline, disappears…
I’d always been a bookworm, but once I settled into a not-so-exciting career, I became a voracious reader of romance and mystery to escape the monotony of my day job. I’d frequent the library during my lunch breaks and devour the titles by my favorite authors. While this was entertainment, it was also educational. My love for writing became rekindled, and I started studying cozies and romantic mysteries with the goal to write what I most loved to read: fun, lighthearted mystery. I especially enjoy writing and reading humorous whodunits that are populated by quirky, loveable characters as reflected by my list. I hope you enjoy them too!
Sunshine Vicram is the kind of protagonist I absolutely love. She’s smart, funny, and perfectly (or imperfectly) capable of taking care of herself while coming to terms with the situation she’s found herself in: Sunshine’s the newly elected sheriff in town–quite an interesting development considering that she never ran for the position. It’s her parents’ doing to lure her back home.
Sure, Sun recognizes this as the complete manipulation it is, but the position affords her the opportunity to solve a mystery from her past. And so this book begins with this great set-up. I knew from page one that I’d love it. The writing is clever and snappy, and the story is laced with wonderfully snarky humor. I was so entertained that I immediately ordered books two and three in the series!
Del Sol, New Mexico is known for three things: its fry-an-egg-on-the-cement summers, strong cups of coffee - and, now, a nationwide manhunt?
Del Sol native Sunshine Vicram has returned to town as the elected sheriff, expecting nothing more than a quiet ride. But now a teenage girl is missing, a kidnapper is on the loose, and all of this is reminding Sunshine why she left Del Sol in the first place. Add to that the trouble at her daughter's new school, plus a kidnapped rooster named Puff Daddy, and, well, the…
