Must-read historical mysteries

Based on the diaries of a real-life 18th century midwife, Martha Ballard, this is a gorgeously written and expertly researched work of feminist historical fiction.

Impossible to put down, and based on the author's grandmother's experience working as a secretary at a 1930s home for "feebleminded" women. Sinister and poignant.

The sleuth at the center of this whodunit is an elderly woman with dementia, who quickly became one of my favorite narrators of all time.

A complicated puzzle set at a summer camp in the 1970s, punctuated with sharp observations about class and gender.

A sexy, beautifully written noir set in the 1970s during Mexico's Dirty War. Full of the suspense and violence you'd expect from pulp fiction, but with a great dose of humanity, pathos, and deeply felt romance.

An older title, a little more obscure, but one of my all-time favorites. I've never read something quite like this book. A masterfully crafted mystery with a unique heroine, who must track down what happened to her fiancé after he and five other would-be deserters are thrown over French lines and into no-man's-land. Trust me and read this.

Lush and juicy as a summer tomato. This historical mystery is told in dual timelines: a modern-day woman facing career and marital crises sets out on a Sicilian adventure to track down the land and the story of her great-grandmother, presumed to have been murdered a hundred years earlier. I devoured this one!