The 10 best works of historical fiction in 2024

Historical novels are a perfect combination of escapism and enrichment. Through these works of fiction, readers can learn about events that have shaped our world and imagine (or reimagine) people who lived through them. This year was a boon in this category, with novels that took readers far and wide - to Europe, Vietnam, the high seas and more - in the company of characters who brought to life notable episodes from the past, some tragic, others triumphant. Here are 10 of the best.

‘54 Miles’ by Leonard Pitts Jr.

In this richly imagined novel, readers link arms with the brave men and women attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965, a turning point in the civil rights movement. On that day, people from many backgrounds joined John Lewis, Hosea Williams and others in Selma, Alabama, on a walk that ended in violence. Pitts, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, uses the marchers’ strife as a backdrop for the story of one family and the traumas they carried for generations.

‘All We Were Promised,’ by Ashton Lattimore

In the years leading up to the Civil War, Philadelphia was home to thousands of free Black residents. Some were wealthy, like the family of the fictional character Nell Garner, one of the three inspiring women at the center of this cinematic debut, set in 1837. Draped in the history of Philadelphia’s thriving abolition movement, this superb novel shares edge-of-your-seat suspense with classic thrillers as the window to help one enslaved woman escape begins to close, endangering her and her saviors.

‘The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye,’ by Briony Cameron

Readers will feel the ship deck shifting and pitching as they follow the tale of Jacquotte Delahaye, a mixed-race woman (who may have existed or may be an amalgam of legends), who rises up from indentured servitude in 17th-century Haiti to become the captain of her own ship. Delahaye shoots, duels and brawls her way through danger and power plays while falling in love with a woman who also embraces the seafaring life.

‘The Comfort of Ghosts,’ by Jacqueline Winspear

In the 18th and final installment of Jacqueline Winspear’s mystery series starring Maisie Dobbs, the nurse-turned-private-investigator uncovers secrets that date all the way back to her life before the wars, and brings solace and a sense of closure to the friends, family and colleagues who have traveled alongside her since then. The mysteries in this installment are not so much puzzles to be solved as they are wrongs to be righted, and Maisie undertakes those duties with characteristic aplomb and a clear-eyed sense of justice.

‘The Phoenix Crown,’ by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake is the sensational backdrop in this seamless collaboration of two terrific novelists. The story centers on forward-thinking women and a priceless Chinese relic, the Phoenix Crown. Looted from the Summer Palace in Beijing, the crown’s magnificence pulls the novel’s characters into its orbit. The novel builds toward the quake, then paints cinematic pictures of its destructive powers.

‘Precipice,’ by Robert Harris

Harris, the author of numerous works of historical fiction including “Fatherland” and “An Officer and a Spy” sets his latest novel in 1914, when Europe is on the cusp of war. He turns his focus to the real-life love affair between Prime Minister H.H. Asquith and Venetia Stanley, a wealthy socialite half his age. It’s all the more intriguing because Harris stitches into the narrative actual love letters that the married Asquith wrote to Stanley. Upping the intrigue is a secondary plot in which Scotland Yard investigates how top-secret documents that Asquith carelessly shared with Stanley had the potential to threaten Britain’s national security.

‘The Secret War of Julia Child,’ by Diana R. Chambers

Was Julia Child, the beloved chef who brought French cooking to the masses, an American spy? She claimed she wasn’t but did admit to working for the OSS, America’s Office of Strategic Services during World War II. She says she was just a clerk, but in this intriguing, history-laced story, Chambers wonders if Child really had been an intelligence officer. The result is a work of alternative history as delectable as Child’s coq au vin. Chambers imagines the 30-something Child busting up a smuggling ring, exposing traitors, surviving a plane crash, trudging through the Burmese jungle and, of course, meeting Paul Child, the love of her life.

‘The Seventh Veil of Salome,’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The author of “Mexican Gothic” places the 1950s Hollywood studio system under a glaring spotlight in this multi-timeline novel. When Mexican actress Vera Larios is cast in a big-budget swords-and-sandals picture as the temptress Salome, she’s soon feeling the sting of racism and sexism on and off the set. In a parallel story set in the 1st century, Salome, the granddaughter of King Herod, is embroiled in royal intrigue and politics leading up to her infamous Dance of the Seven Veils and the beheading of a biblical prophet.

‘Sisters of Belfast,’ by Melanie Maure

An estimated 9,000 children died in Ireland’s “mother and baby homes,” where unwed pregnant women endured abuse at the hands of the people meant to protect them. Babies born in the homes were often stolen from their mothers, and the children who perished were buried in unmarked graves. This tragedy is at the heart of Maure’s powerful debut novel. Despite its bleak storyline, this is an achingly beautiful novel about redemption and the power of sisterhood.

‘The Women,’ by Kristin Hannah

This danger and emotion-packed novel is set during the tumultuous 1960s when young American men - volunteers and draftees - went to fight in Vietnam. What many news outlets at the time mostly ignored were the contributions made to the war effort by thousands of nurses. It’s through one of these brave women - Frankie McGrath - that Hannah lays out a gripping story of the risks they took to save as many injured military personnel and Vietnamese as possible. The novel acknowledging the PTSD many of them suffered upon their return to the U.S. where they were often vilified for their service, if it was recognized at all.