85 books like The Lindbergh Nanny

My all-time favorite time travel book, this story tells of a young student’s journey into the past for a university project. Things go awry, and she arrives at the wrong time, squarely in the path of the Black Death.  

As a history buff, I loved the historical perspective of the story imposed against modern university life, as the story tells of the gradual demise of a small English village and the university's attempts to get the student back.

I found the story most realistic, and the sheer urgency of the main character’s dire situation kept me fully engrossed to the last pages, where she is finally rescued. I recommend it to lovers of time travel stories and history buffs.

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. 

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. 

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. 

It's not strictly a biography, but it might as well be one. A brilliant stylist, Breslin creates a fictionalized dramatization that has the unerring ring of Runyon’s truth.

His chronicling of the raffish world of Broadway and adjacent side streets was the basis for the musical Guys and Dolls. Breslin uses copious dialogue and minutely observed incidents to flesh out things that happened or may very well have happened.

This book is a comprehensive guide to US regulations regarding money laundering; it also mentions some international organisms that fight against this crime. By including real-life cases in which it is specified how money laundering was carried out, I learned a lot because money laundering is a complex crime, believe me! It’s ideal for those who also want to know how a financial investigation is carried out since it takes you by the hand to understand what to do. Without a doubt a very complete guide.

Megan has been transparent about the fact that Behind the Red Door is not the most popular of her books, but it’s my personal favorite!

Fern Douglas is out of the loop: a missing woman shows up on the news whose famous kidnapping two decades ago—and subsequent return—everyone seems to have heard about. But Fern has no memory of that story; she only knows that she has seen the woman’s face before, and she comes to fear that she might have somehow been involved in what happened to her.

This book has one of the best portrayals of chronic anxiety I’ve read, and one of the most twisted and f-ed up stories, which I absolutely tore through. Read it, and prepare to be chilled to the bone.

I picked up this biography of notorious Jazz-age criminal, conman, and crooked lawman Gaston Means for research on my own book – early in his career Means was a paid German agent who fed information to my subject, newsman John Rathom. But Hoyt’s brilliant book was much more valuable to me than that. It is a master class in how to tell the story of a less-than-wholesome character. Hoyt does not judge Means’ criminal behavior. Instead, his deliciously wry language left me chuckling at the towering ambition of the conman’s greatest schemes. Who else but Gaston Means would think to exploit the kidnapping of the Lindberg baby to con money out of the wealthy socialite who owned the Hope Diamond? 

I love reading novels set in Oxford, where I spent some of the happiest years of my life, and this book includes some vivid descriptions of the city and its environs.

The narrator is an eccentric woman, a mathematician with a troubled past, who works for academic families as a nanny. She takes a post with an unlikeable couple in the hope of befriending their withdrawn 8-year-old daughter. But when the little girl goes missing, the nanny comes under suspicion. This is an unusual story with some quirky characters.  

I was honored to read an early draft of this novel by fellow human and Jerseyite, Val Emmich, and was immediately taken with the voice of Joan, a 10-year-old girl with a special condition that gives her the ability to remember everything, but is afraid of being forgotten. To remedy that, she wants to win a prestigious songwriting contest by writing a song that makes people both want to dance and cry (two of the strongest feelings in her opinion). So she strikes a deal with Gavin, an adult songwriter who she believes can help her make that happen. Jersey City is the primary setting for this novel, a city that along with its many other charms, offers spectacular views of the New York City skyline.