Books like 'A Crime of Secrets'
Readers who enjoyed A Crime of Secrets by Ann Aptaker also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery lgbtq historical-fiction wlw whodunit crime romantic-love female-mc
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The Saltwater Murder by L.B. Hathaway
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMURDERED WITH A BOX OF TEARS… London, 1924Posie Parker has been called to her most baffling case yet.Amyas Lyle, London’s top young lawyer, has been found with his head in a box of poisoned saltwater.It’s the perfect murder... -
The Tell Tale by Clare Ashton
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA small town, enduring love, a web of secrets.The Tell Tale has been watching and waiting, because there’s something queer about the village of Foel.Beth Griffiths has returned home to raise her daughter in the Welsh hills. They arrive to the open arms of the community, but not all is what it seems and Beth isn’t home for the reason she pretends either... -
A Deadly Affair by Carla Simpson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLondon 1889 — Murder, mystery, and two people in a most unlikely partnership.She's an unconventional lady who has traveled the world, practices the art of self defense most excellently, and has an interesting tattoo in, ahem... a very unusual place... -
The Midwife's Secret by Emily Gunnis
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA little girl goes missing from Yew Tree Manor - the same house from which a girl vanished decades before. Does the key to the present lie buried even deeper in the past, in the forgotten history of an innocent midwife accused by a family of shocking betrayal? A gripping, heartwrenching story of love, loyalty and family secrets... -
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Feu d'artifice mortel by Faith Martin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratings‘An explosive read… Characters, dialogue and plot were superb.’ NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars As the Hughes family celebrate bonfire night, a terrible accident leaves the garden shed in flames – and father and grandfather Thomas trapped inside. Tragic though it is, Thomas’s death passes without suspicion – until a local journalist makes accusations of a police cover-up in the press... -
A Fatal Obsession by Faith Martin
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOxford, 1960. There's a murderer on the loose and two unlikely heroes are poised to solve the case.Meet Probationary WPC Trudy Loveday – smart, enthusiastic and always underestimated.In the hope of getting her out of the way, Trudy’s senior officer assigns her to help coroner Clement Ryder as he re-opens the case of a young woman's death... -
A Fatal Secret by Faith Martin
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOxford, 1961A family day out at Briar’s Hall ends in tragedy when a young boy goes missing – and his body is found at the bottom of a disused well in the orchard.It looks like a simple case of an eleven-year-old exploring where he shouldn’t: a tragic accident. But Coroner Clement Ryder and Probationary WPC Trudy Loveday aren’t convinced... -
The Fateful Marriage by Elizabeth Bailey
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA brand new mystery featuring Lady Fan! For fans of Georgette Heyer, Mary Balogh, Barbara Erskine and Jane Austen. Wherever Lady Fan goes, murder follows… 1791, England Lady Ottilia and Lord Francis Fanshawe are holidaying in Tunbridge Wells when they stumble across the scene of a horrific accident... -
A Vigil of Spies by Candace Robb
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA callous murder. A devastating secret. A crime of passion.York, 1373: John Thoresby, the Archbishop of York, lies dying... -
The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIndisputably the greatest fiction detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes lives on-in films, on television, and, of course, through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's inimitable craft. These 22 stories show Holmes at his brilliant best... -
The Dagger Dance by Elizabeth Bailey
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLady Fan returns in another twisty murder case! For fans of Georgette Heyer, Mary Balogh, Barbara Erskine and Jane Austen.Can Lady Fan unravel another mystery…?1793, EnglandAfter a not-so-relaxing holiday in Tunbridge Wells, Lady Ottilia and Lord Francis Fanshawe have returned to their home with a young orphaned girl, Pertesia ‘Pretty’ Brockhurst... -
The Candlelit Coffin by Elizabeth Bailey
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA thrilling mix of mystery and romance! For fans of Georgette Heyer, Mary Balogh, Barbara Erskine and Jane Austen. Murder lurks behind the scenes… 1791, England Lord Francis and Lady Ottilia Fanshawe have suffered a devastating blow. With Ottilia sunk deep into a depression, Francis is desperate to get his beloved wife back... -
The Mortal Blow by Elizabeth Bailey
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe intrepid Lady Fan is back! For fans of Georgette Heyer, Mary Balogh, Barbara Erskine and Jane Austen. Lady Fan is back to full health but can she solve the trickiest case yet…? 1791, England Lord Francis and Lady Ottilia Fanshawe are on their way home when their coach comes to a sudden stop. A woman is standing in the middle of the road — covered in blood... -
Death by the Book by Beth Byers
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsInspired by classic fiction and Miss Buncle's Book. Death by the Book questions what happens when you throw a murder into idyllic small town England.July 1936When Georgette Dorothy Marsh’s dividends fall along with the banks, she decides to write a book. Her only hope is to bring her account out of overdraft and possibly buy some hens... -
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Murder in the Library by Martha Bond
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMurder mystery at the manor!After months of travel, former maid, Lottie Sprigg, returns to Fortescue Manor in the rolling hills of Shropshire. Her arrival coincides with a celebratory dinner to mend a family feud. But the flow of champagne dwindles to a trickle when a body is found in the library…Who committed the atrocity? Suspicion falls on several some above stairs and some below... -
Appalachian Justice by Melinda Clayton
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBilly May Platte is a half Irish, half Cherokee Appalachian woman who learned the hard way that 1940s West Virginia was no place to be different.As Billy May explains, “We was sheltered in them hills. We didn’t know much of nothin’ about life outside of them mountains. I did not know the word lesbian; to us, gay meant havin’ fun and queer meant somethin’ strange... -
The Heretic by Liam McIlvanney
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSet in 1976, seven years after the murders recounted in Liam McIlvanney’s breakout novel, The Quaker, this new Glasgow noir novel is a standalone mystery featuring serial character, Detective Duncan McCormack.McCormack has returned to Glasgow after a stint with the Metropolitan Police in London. The reason for his return is left a lurking mystery throughout... -
Murder at Feathers & Flair by Lee Strauss
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt's 1924 and war widow fashionista Ginger Gold's new Regent Street dress shop, Feathers & Flair, is the talk of the London fashion district attracting aristocrats from Paris to Berlin to Moscow.Ginger is offered her first job as a private detective when a well-known stage actor goes missing, and though the dress shop takes most of her time, Ginger takes the case... -
A Fatal Mistake by Faith Martin, Stephanie Racine
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSummer 1960, Oxford In the glorious sunshine of Oxford, on a day when everyone should be celebrating, tragedy strikes when a university student is found floating in the river, dead.Probationary WPC Trudy Loveday finds herself paired with coroner Clement Ryder to investigate and it soon becomes clear that this case is not going to be easy... -
The Cursed Writer by Holly Hepburn
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPreorder the BRAND NEW instalment in Holly Hepburn's page-turning Baker Street Mystery series Join Harriet White in 1930's London for another glorious Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery, for fans of Nita Prose and Janice... -
The Hidden Law by Michael Nava
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWinner of six Lambda Literary awards, the Henry Rios mystery series is iconic. In The Hidden Law, Rios delves deeply into his Latino identity as he defends a young man charged with assassinating a prominent Los Angeles Latino politician... -
The Bell in the Fog by Lev A.C. Rosen
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Bell in the Fog , a dazzling historical mystery by Lev AC Rosen, asks―once you have finally found a family, how far would you go to prove yourself to them?San Francisco, 1952. Detective Evander “Andy” Mills has started a new life for himself as a private detective―but his business hasn’t exactly taken off... -
The Hangman's Hymn by Paul Doherty
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsStumbling upon an execution, Chaucer's pilgrims witness a hanging that leaves the carpenter in a dead faint. That evening, he narrates the tale of a Gloucester hangman whose involvement in the secretive punishment of three witches unleashes a vicious spate of revenge killings.When Simon Cotterill, a carpenter, followes his sweetheart to Gloucester, he is beaten by her father's thugs...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime romantic-love mystery medieval fiction historical supernatural -
The Leper's Bell by Peter Tremayne
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn November of 667 A.D., Fidelma of Cashel has returned home to her brother's castle to discover that a servant, her son's nurse, has been found brutally murdered in the woods near town, and her son is missing, presumed kidnapped or worse... -
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Gone Before Christmas by Charles Finch
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn Gone Before Christmas, this delightfully absorbing short Christmas story in the bestselling Charles Lenox mystery series, Lenox must find a soldier who ran into a cloakroom for his hat—and never returned.Charles Lenox’s holiday preparations are interrupted when an officer vanishes at Charing Cross Station...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime wlw romantic-love mystery historical fiction industrial-era -
My Dearest Holmes by Rohase Piercy
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"The accounts of these cases are too bound up with events in my personal life which, although they may provide a plausible commentary to much of my dealings with Mr Sherlock Holmes, can never be public while he or I remain alive... -
A Bucket of Ashes by P.B. Ryan
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“As always, the author excels at setting the scene, evoking the time and place by use of the day-to-day details as well as historical events. The resolution of the central mystery is almost secondary to the revelations about Nell’s past and the way the author ties up all the loose ends of her present situation. Longtime readers will enjoy this aspect immensely; I know I did... -
Murder in Venice by L.B. Hathaway
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWho do you trust when simply everyone is wearing a mask?A Winter Wedding, Venice, 1923Posie Parker, London’s premier female Private Detective, is getting married…But on arrival in Venice, Posie finds she is walking into a nightmare: her lodgings on the Grand Canal are consumed by fire, her famous fiancé is preoccupied, and most bizarrely of all, her hostess, the Countess Romagnoli, confesses she... -
The Hidden Moon by Jeannie Lin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA well-bred lady and lowly street hustler team up in a historical murder mystery set during China's glittering Tang Dynasty. Part of the best-selling Lotus Palace series.Impetuous and well-educated, young Lady Bai has always been the forgotten daughter between two favored sons...Categorized as:
crime female-mc historical-fiction whodunit adult ancient-civilization asian-mc book -
Turning the Tide by Edith Maxwell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"An intriguing look at life in 19th-century New England, a heroine whose goodness guides all her decisions, and a mystery that surprises."--Kirkus Reviews A suffragist is murdered in Rose Carroll's Massachusetts town Excitement runs high during presidential election week in 1888... -
Surgeons’ Hall by E.S. Thomson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat secret grips Corvus Hall?Visiting the Great Exhibition to view the wax anatomical models of the famous but reclusive Dr Silas Strangeway, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain find a severed hand, perfectly dissected and laid out amongst the exhibits... -
Betrayal at Iga: A Hiro Hattori Novel by Susan Spann
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAutumn, 1565: After fleeing Kyoto, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo take refuge with Hiro's ninja clan in the mountains of Iga province. But when an ambassador from the rival Koga clan is murdered during peace negotiations, Hiro and Father Mateo must find the killer in time to prevent a war between the ninja clans... -
Somewhere Between Love and Justice by S.W. Andersen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThree lives meet at an unimaginable crossroad in this story of love, loss and loyalty in the old west. Sarah Sawyer has spent the last ten years reliving a nightmare. With her horse, Clover, she takes to the trails in search of solitude and revenge. While she shares a common goal and close bond with U.S. Marshall Jessie Walker, another silently holds Sarah's heart... -
Daring Duplicity by Edale Lane
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSolving mysteries is her business. Finding love is her dream. Will combining the two get her killed?Victorian Era England. Stetson revels in being unconventional. So when society shies away from her independent nature, the bold woman creates an imaginary boss and opens her own detective agency... -
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Atonement of Blood by Peter Tremayne
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWinter, 670 AD. King Colgú has invited the leading nobles and chieftains of his kingdom to a feast day. The gathering is interrupted by a religieux claiming that he has an important message for the King. Suddenly, the man, shouting 'Remember Liamuin!' stabs King Colgú. The assassin is slain but Colgú is on the verge of death... -
Death and the Harlot by Georgina Clarke
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA gripping historical crime debut from an exciting new voice. ‘It’s strange, the way fortune deals her hand.’ The year is 1759 and London is shrouded in a cloak of fear. With the constables at the mercy of highwaymen, it’s a perilous time to work the already dangerous streets of Soho...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime romantic-love whodunit female-mc mystery historical fiction -
The Guilt of Innocents by Candace Robb
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt is winter in the year of our Lord 1372. A river pilot falls into the icy waters of the River Ouse during a skirmish between dockworkers and the boys of the minster school—among them Owen Archer’s adopted son Jasper... -
The Dove of Death by Peter Tremayne
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn A.D. 670, an Irish merchant ship is attacked by a pirate vessel off the southern coast of the Breton peninsula. Merchad, the ship?s captain, and Bressal, a prince from the Irish kingdom of Muman, are killed in cold blood after they have surrendered. Among the other passengers who manage to escape the slaughter are Fidelma of Cashel and her faithful companion, Brother Eadulf... -
Whispers of the Dead by Peter Tremayne
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"The dead always whisper to us. It is our task to listen to the whispers of the dead." Fidelma of Cashel - sister to the King of Muman, a religieuse of the Celtic Church and an advocate of the Brehon courts - returns in this new collection of tales... -
A Prayer for the Damned by Peter Tremayne
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn February of 668 A.D., Fidelma of Cashel and her companion Eadulf are about to get permanently married. As the sister to the King of Muman, Fidelma's marriage ceremony is a major event; the High King of Ireland, as well as other kings and major figures, are going to be in attendance... -
The Willow Pattern by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJudge Dee has been appointed emergency governor of the plague- and drought-ridden Imperial City. As his guards help the city fend off a popular uprising, an aristocrat from one of the oldest families in China suffers an "accident" in a deserted mansion... -
Necklace and Calabash: A Chinese Detective Story by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJudge Dee is a magistrate in the fictional Poo-yang district, its a wealthy area through which the Grand Canal of China runs (part of modern-day Jiangsu province). The Emperor's daughter lives in the district at the Water Palace but it falls under a special administration run by the military commander... -
The Opium Purge by Elizabeth Bailey
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA dark shadow has been brought from the West Indies to an English estate… 1790, England Lord Francis and Lady Ottilia Fanshawe are preparing for the birth of their first child. But Lady Fan won’t let a little thing like pregnancy get in the way of solving a local mystery... -
The Monk Who Vanished by Peter Tremayne
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn September of 666 A.D., an aged monk and a set of relics disappear during the night from the Abbey of Imleach. The missing monk is a matter of great concern for the abbey. But the relics are a disaster of a much higher order. They are the priceless holy relics of St... -
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Murder in the Scottish Hills by Lydia Travers, Helen McAlpine
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen Maud McIntyre and her lady’s maid Daisy travel into the Scottish Highlands, the last thing they expect to find is a body on the train… Will these keen amateur sleuths stop a murderer in his tracks?Edinburgh, 1911: When Maud McIntyre receives a letter from a maid called Rose, sharing her suspicions that something strange is happening in the house where she works, she and her assistant Daisy... -
The Rage of Plum Blossoms by Christine M. Whitehead
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsAttorney Quinn Jones is in over her head. Her husband, Jordan Chang, Annapolis grad and superstar businessman, has been found dead outside their Greenwich Village brownstone. He’s wearing clothes that aren’t his, and was last seen at a place he never went while consorting with people he shouldn’t—and he’s vastly richer than he ought to be, Quinn discovers... -
The Chinese Bell Murders by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA.D. 668Meet Judge Dee, the detective lauded as the "Sherlock Holmes of ancient China" — Fans of Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series will thrill to this reissue of the first volume in Robert van Gulik's classic Chinese Murders series. The Chinese Bell Murders introduces the great Judge Dee, a magistrate of the city of Poo-yang in ancient China... -
Murder & The Heir by Beth Byers
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsChristmas 1922. Violet Carlyle--along with a slew of relatives--is called to spend the holidays with their aunt, Agatha Davies. The intransigent woman has spent the majority of her life squirreling away money and alienating her family. It's hardly the first time Vi has spent the holidays with her aunt. She and her twin intend to do what they always do... -
An Old Money Murder in Mayfair by Sara Rosett
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMidnight treasure hunts, fancy-dress parties, and a blue-blooded murder . . .November, 1923. Olive’s school chum, Gigi, invites Olive to London because Gigi’s dotty grandmother fears for her life—or so she’s said to Gigi. However Olive is surprised to find that the dowager is far from muddled. The sharp and imperious matriarch refuses to admit to her worries and sends Olive on her way... -
Murder Under Her Skin: A Pentecost and Parker Mystery by Stephen Spotswood
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRex Stout meets Agatha Christie with a fresh twist in the new Pentecost and Parker Mystery, a delightfully hardboiled high-wire act starring two daring woman sleuths dead set on justice as they set out to solve a murder at a traveling circus...
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