STARRED REVIEW
April 11, 2023

14 marvelous Victorian mysteries

Maybe it’s the gaslight, maybe it’s the ever-present fog, maybe it’s the shadow of Sherlock Holmes looming over it all, but there’s something so very satisfying about a mystery set in the Victorian era. Here are 14 of our favorites—including some spectacular modern takes on Holmes himself.
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Blood on the Water

Victorian London comes alive in Anne Perry’s tension-filled new mystery, Blood on the Water, the 20th novel in her best-selling William Monk series.

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The Laws of Murder

Charles Finch's refined gentleman sleuth is a man of quiet honor and determination.
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The Fifth Heart

Dan Simmons is known for big, serious books like Drood and The Terror that mix real-life history with genre fiction. And while The ...

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The Strangler Vine

As The Strangler Vine opens, William Avery is a typical young soldier in 1830’s colonial India: deep in debt, disdainful of Indian “barbarity,” stalled in ...

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A Curious Beginning

Veronica Speedwell, the Victorian sleuth in A Curious Beginning, is observant, outspoken and a bit risqué. Fans of Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia series will be ...

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