Twelve top historical mysteries that make the past feel dangerously alive

Oprah Daily tagged historical fiction titles that "use mystery not merely to decorate history, but to interrogate it, asking whose secrets were protected, whose stories were suppressed, and what the past can reveal when someone finally starts asking the right questions." One novel on the list:

Down a Dark River, by Karen Odden

One finely dressed dead girl found bound and surrounded by flowers, in a small boat on the Thames, strikes a curious tableau. A second and third could spark panic that our cross-pressured Scotland Yard detective Michael Corravan is determined to avoid. Unfolding in 1878, 10 years before Jack the Ripper terrorized the working women of London and written by an authority in Victorian literature, this story probes similar territory as Hallie Rubenfeld’s Ripper-inspired social history The Five. Period and place are exceptionally well-drawn, from the sights and smells of the city’s most famous natural landmark to the jewelry on the elegant necks of its Mayfair residents to the secrets and boundaries that rule their lives—and provide the key to the killings.
—Carole V. Bell

Read about another historical mystery on the list.

My Book, The Movie: Down a Dark River.

The Page 69 Test: Down a Dark River.

--Marshal Zeringue