14 of the Best Romantic Historical Mysteries to Sweep You Into Another Time

Turn-of-the-century New York is split into two societies: the city’s elites attend beautiful balls inside the grand halls of mansions, while the other side of the population scrapes by in the city’s gritty underworld. 

New York City's Police Commissioner Rick Bragg wants to reform the police department and stop crime on the streets. When a dangerous case leaves him puzzled, he is forced to seek the help of Francesca Cahill.

Francesca is a dazzling heiress with a talent for sleuthing. Although Rick tries to fight it, the attraction between him and Francesca only continues to grow, as does the danger surrounding them as they plunge into the treacherous case. 

While Holly Campbell is traveling to visit her father on the frontier in Silver Creek, Texas, she receives a letter stating that he has died by suicide. 

Holly doesn’t let her heartbreak blind her logic, she knows that her father would never take his own life. She sets out to find the true killer, avoiding the town’s sheriff who she knows to be untrustworthy. 

But even as she tries to fight her desire, Holly finds herself drawn to the handsome sheriff. Now she must solve the mystery of her beloved father’s death while also fighting her undeniable attraction.

Miss Dido Kent is considered a shame as she remains an unmarried spinster at the age of 36. Dido’s parents send her to accompany her Aunt Manners on a trip to Charcombe Manor, her childhood home. 

Upon arrival, Dido learns that the wealthy heiress Letitia Verney has disappeared from Charcombe and that a Mr. Tom Lomax is suspected of abducting her.

Other oddities abound in the Elizabethan manor house and Dido knows something isn’t right.

Dido must get to the bottom of the mystery, to find the missing heiress and to save the name of the Lomax family. For, Dido is deeply in love with the father of Tom Lomax, the accused. 

The year is 1888 and the man who will become known as Jack the Ripper has just begun his reign of terror on the city of London.

 Princess Vicky, daughter of Queen Victoria, receives word that the Metropolitan Police have found a suspect, and that it’s her own nephew Crown Prince Eddy. 

Vicky, who was recently widowed by a German Emperor, immediately travels back to England to clear her family name and do what she can to find the real murderer. 

Detective Inspector Thomas Edmondson is determined to put an end to the murders and bring the killer to justice, and he suspects that the royals are involved in a cover-up.

When Vicky joins him in pursuit of the murderer, they quickly form a bond, despite coming from completely different worlds.

Neither of them could imagine the danger that will result from their newfound love.

Crispin Foscari is one of the most trusted and effective spies of Queen Elizabeth I, but when he is accused of treason, he has only two weeks to prove his innocence and save himself from execution. 

Sophie Champion has devoted her life and resources to saving London women from controlling men. When she finds herself in danger, she goes from saving to needing to be saved and Crispin Foscari swoops in to help. 

The two must work together to combine their wits and defeat a mysterious enemy. The only obstacle to their quest is their intense mutual attraction.

As they get closer to the bottom of the mystery, they find their desire harder to control, but that desire might just be the end of them both.

After her spinster aunt dies, Veronica Speedwell sets off on the journey of a lifetime. As the city prepares for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Veronica prepares her butterfly nets. But fate has other plans.

When she manages to avoid abduction, she meets a German baron with ties to her mysterious past. He offers her sanctuary with a reclusive natural historian named Stoker until he can reveal the plot against her.

But before the baron can return, he’s found murdered. Veronica and Stoker are forced on the run as they avoid an elusive enemy in pursuit of the truth.

It’s summer in San Francisco in 1879 and young widow Annie Fuller is in trouble. Her husband squandered their fortune before committing suicide five years earlier and now her boardinghouse is at risk.

When one of her boarders, a clairvoyant, claims a local death is actually a murder, and that his significant assets are at large, Annie turns to the family lawyer to help, a man both attractive and infuriating.

And as they work together to discover the truth, the pull between the two becomes undeniable.

Lady Kiera Darby wants nothing more than to disappear into her art after her husband dies. She retreats to her sister’s estate.

But when her sister throws a party, the cream of London society intrudes on her solace. After one of the guests is murdered, her brother-in-law implores her to use her skills painting anatomy to assist inquiry agent Gage.

But as their investigation leads to more grim discoveries, Kiera receives several disturbing notes. With her family’s reputation on the line and her own innocence at stake, Kiera refuses to stop. Even if that means she might be next.

With London’s social season roaring, Victorian nobility is buzzing with the arrival of a stranger claiming to be a direct descendent of Louis XVI and Marie Antionette. It’s odd timing considering a cat burglar is on the loose.

And they’re targeting anything tied to the doomed queen. But when the owner of one of the stolen items is found dead, the thief becomes obsessed with Lady Emily Ashton.

And to make matters worse, she’s already facing a scandal over her brewing romance with the handsome Colin Hargreaves. It’s going to take all her wits and nerves to unmask the stalker, reveal the murderer, and save her reputation.

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born into a life of luxury. As a lord’s daughter, she’s expected to embrace the wealth and privilege her station affords her by attending social teas and behaving like a lady.

Except Audrey has other plans. Whenever she can, she makes her way to her uncle’s laboratory, where she learns the gruesome science of forensic medicine.

But when a series of savagely mutilated corpses puts her in the path of a serial murderer, her need to find the truth puts her sheltered life in mortal danger.

After two assassination attempts, Colonel Derek Delborough is anxiously anticipating arrival in Southampton. But days before they dock, someone tries to kill him. And Miss Delilah Duncannon saves his life.

She’s as intriguing as she is unwelcome, but by saving him, she’s put herself directly in the line of fire. Now, she’s a target of Delborough’s enemies, too.

As they race to reach the safe confines of Cynster country house, they struggle with a deadly enemy on their trail and the dangerous distraction their growing attraction threatens to become.

Harriet Pomeroy needs help. And not just any help.

But someone brave, powerful, and clever enough to find the thieves using her beloved caves to stash their ill-begotten gains, and force them to leave. She finds that help in Gideon Westbrook, the Beast of Blackthorne Hall.

Though his reputation is menacing, he’s nothing she expected. Neither is her sudden passion. As she tries to win his heart, a treacherous villain plots to ensure that her happily ever after is over before it even begins.

Lady Adriana Hadley wants to find her father’s murderer. That’s why she plays a French chef in a London aristocratic house.

But when the Prince Regent gets sick after eating her chocolate dessert, she’s thrust into a dangerous scandal.

Her only hope is Alessandro de Quincy, Earl of Saybrook. His expertise in chocolate makes him ideal for investigating the crime. 

But when he discovers her true identity, she convinces him to keep her secret for her help in finding the actual criminal. The only problem is, whoever it is wants England in chaos.

And putting Alessandro and Adriana at the bottom of the Thames might be their next step.

Charlotte Holmes has never exactly fit in with the expectations placed on her by society.

But she never thought she’d actually be cast out of her social circles and left to fend for herself on the streets of London.

When three suspicious deaths place her sister and father as the main suspects, Charlotte will do whatever it takes to clear their names.

Including turning to a police inspector who has long been in love with her. Using the alias Sherlock, Charlotte sets out to defy societal expectations and match wits with an enemy mastermind that no one can see but her.