Historical Musings #93: Books to look out for in 2026

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In what has become a December tradition here on the blog, it’s time to look ahead to the historical fiction being published in the year to come. I’m listing below a selection of 2026 releases that have caught my attention for one reason or another – some are review copies I’ve already received, some are new books by authors I’ve previously enjoyed and others just sound interesting. 2026 looks like being a great year for historical fiction and I hope there’s something here that appeals to you!

Dates provided are for the UK and were correct at the time of posting.

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JANUARY

A Slow and Secret Poison by Carmella Lowkis (22nd January 2026; Doubleday) – A Gothic novel set in an English country house.

Brigid by Kim Curran (29th January 2026; Michael Joseph) – A reimagining of the life of Ireland’s St Brigid.

FEBRUARY

The Wandering Queen by Claire Heywood (12th February 2026; Hodder & Stoughton) – The story of Dido, Queen of Carthage.

The House of Fallen Sisters by Louise Hare (12th February 2026; HQ) – A new novel about the dark side of 18th century London

The Night Hag by Hester Musson (26th February 2026; Fourth Estate) – Historical mystery set in 19th century Scotland.

The Cromarty Library Circle by Shona MacLean (26th February 2026; Quercus) – A group of people are drawn together by their love of books in 1830s Scotland.

Nonesuch by Francis Spufford (26th February 2026; Faber & Faber) – Historical fantasy set during the London Blitz.

MARCH

A Far-flung Life by ML Stedman (5th March 2026; Transworld) – A family saga set in Western Australia. It’s been such a long time since Stedman’s first novel!

Pixie by Jill Dawson (12th March 2026; Bloomsbury) – A fictional account of the life of Pamela ‘Pixie’ Colman Smith, a British artist, illustrator, writer and occultist.

A Remedy for Fate by MA Kuzniar (12th March 2026; Hodderscape) – Historical fantasy set in the Magic Quarter of 18th century Prague.

Love Lane by Patrick Gale (26th March 2026; Tinder Press) – A sequel to A Place Called Winter, this time taking us to 1950s Liverpool.

The Dreadfuls by A. Rae Dunlap (31st March 2026; Kensington Publishing) – Historical thriller revolving around the Jack the Ripper murders.

APRIL

The Crownless Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick (9th April 2026; Sphere) – The second in Chadwick’s duology about Jeanette of Kent.

Lochbound by Rebecca Templeton (16th April 2026; Sphere) – A woman in 1720s Scotland is cursed to spend her days in the form of a monster imprisoned in a loch.

Lidie by Jane Smiley (21st April 2026; Knopf Publishing Group) – Two women flee America just before the Civil War begins to start a new life in England.

The House of Boleyn by Tracey Borman (23rd April 2026; Hodder & Stoughton) – A novel about the rise and fall of the Boleyn family.

MAY

Rebel’s Gambit by SJ Parris (21st May 2026; Hemlock Press) – The second book in Parris’ new Sophia de Wolfe mystery series.

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett (21st May 2026; Penguin) – Stockett’s long-awaited second novel follows a group of women living in Mississippi during the Great Depression.

Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd (21st May 2026; Faber & Faber) – The second book in the Nora Breen mystery series, starring an ex-nun detective and set in a 1950s seaside town.

The Boleyn Secret by Alison Weir (21st May 2026; Headline) – The latest of Weir’s Tudor novels, this time about Anne Boleyn’s niece, Kate Carey.

The Repentants by Kate Foster (28th May 2026; Mantle) – Foster’s new novel is set in the 18th century and inspired by a real-life attempt by Scottish landowners to annex Iceland for the British Empire.

JUNE

Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See (2nd June 2026; Scribner) – The story of three Chinese women who arrive in Los Angeles in 1870.

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden (2nd June 2026; Century) – Historical fantasy set in the magical forests of Brittany. I can’t wait for this one!

Land by Maggie O’Farrell (2nd June 2026; Tinder Press) – The story of a father and son working on a project to map the whole of Ireland in 1865.

The Queen’s Sister by Carol McGrath (4th June 2026; Headline) – A Tudor novel about Elizabeth Seymour, sister of Henry VIII’s wife Jane Seymour.

A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Catching a Killer by FH Petford (4th June 2026; Hodder & Stoughton) – The second book in the Alma Timperley mystery series set during the First World War.

Pale Mistress by Naomi Kelsey (4th June 2026; Harper North) – Set in 17th century Cyprus, this is a reimagining of the story of Bianca from Shakespeare’s Othello.

The Lost Chateau by Dinah Jefferies (4th June 2026; HarperCollins) – A sequel to The Greek House, this time taking us to the French countryside in the 1930s.

This Immortal Heart by Jennifer Saint (4th June 2026; Viking) – A retelling of the story of Aphrodite and her relationship with Ares.

JULY

The Scandalous Ladies Football Club by Frances Quinn (2nd July 2026; Simon & Schuster) – A group of women form Britain’s first ever women’s football team in 1890s London.

AUGUST

Henrietta by Sophie Irwin (13th August 2026; Penguin) – Described as ‘the first and only authorised Georgette Heyer continuation novel’, this book takes characters from Heyer’s Snowdrift collection and works them into a new novel.

Agrippa by Robert Harris (27th August 2026; Hutchinson Heinemann) – The story of the Emperor Augustus seen through the eyes of his closest friend, Agrippa. I love Harris’s books set in Ancient Rome!

SEPTEMBER

Cold Sunset by William Boyd (3rd September 2026; Penguin) – The third book featuring accidental spy Gabriel Dax, this time taking us to Cold War Russia.

The Midnight Guests by Alex Hay (10th September 2026; Headline) – A mystery unfolding over a period of twenty-four hours in a 1920s London hotel.

The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain (17th September 2026; Chatto & Windus) – A fictional account of the woman who inspired Mrs Danvers in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.

OCTOBER

The Puffin by Michelle Lovric (8th October 2026; Salt) – A sequel to Lovric’s The Book of Human Skin, set in 19th century Venice.

DECEMBER

Domain of Darkness by Marisa Linton (3rd December 2026; Hodderscape) – The sequel to the Edwardian supernatural mystery Circle of Shadows, which I read earlier this month and enjoyed.

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Will you be reading any of these books? Are there any other 2026 historical fiction releases you’re looking forward to?

Ghosts of Grayhaven by Amy Newbold and Lark Wright

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Some of you probably know Lark, who blogs at Lark Writes. She’s a blogger I’ve been following for many years so when she announced recently that she and her sister, Amy Newbold, had written and published a novella together I was interested in reading it.

The story begins with Mariah Moore arriving in the small town of Grayhaven in the Pacific Northwest with instructions from a client to complete a very unusual task. She has been asked to locate the burial place of Bartholomew Kane and perform a special ritual at his grave. Mariah has no idea why she needs to do this – it’s just a job to her and as long as she gets paid she doesn’t ask too many questions.

Zeb Raven has inherited the position of Keeper from his father. He’s responsible for protecting the graves in the cemetery – including the one that Mariah has been sent to find. When Mariah unknowingly releases a vengeful spirit from Bartholomew Kane’s grave, she and Zeb must work together to set the spirit to rest and rescue the people of Grayhaven from its evil.

Ghosts of Grayhaven is a supernatural story with a touch of romance. It could probably have been expanded into a longer book, but it’s also fine the way it is and I found it a quick, entertaining read. Mariah and Zeb are both engaging characters – I was particularly intrigued by Mariah’s job, doing unpleasant or dangerous tasks that her clients don’t want to do themselves, but Zeb’s work as the Keeper of the graves is also interesting. Cemeteries are always great settings, both for the spooky, ghostly atmosphere they can evoke and for what they can tell us about the history of a town and its families.

There’s also a third main character who joins Zeb and Mariah in their mission to save Grayhaven – Zeb’s dog, Moose, who plays a big part in the story. Lark has shared a picture on her blog of the Bavarian Mountain Scent Hound who inspired Moose. He was definitely my favourite character in the book! I think Amy and Lark can feel proud of what they’ve achieved with this novella and I hope they’ll be writing more.

The Art School Murders by Moray Dalton – #DeanStreetDecember25

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Dean Street Press December is back, hosted again by Liz of Adventures in Reading, Running and Working From Home. The rules are simple – just read and write about at least one book published by Dean Street Press during the month of December! I have several DSP books on the TBR and decided to start with a detective novel by Moray Dalton, a new author for me although I’ve seen other bloggers give her books very positive reviews.

The Art School Murders opens with the murder of Althea Greville, an artists’ model who has been employed to pose for the students at Morosini’s School of Art. Althea had briefly worked at the school the year before, causing a stir and capturing the hearts of many of the young male students, but on arriving for her second engagement she appeared very different: old, tired and desperate for money and opportunities. When the caretaker’s wife finds Althea’s body behind a screen in the life classroom one November morning, Inspector Hugh Collier of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate.

Assisted by Sergeant Duffield, Collier begins to question the staff and students, looking for any clues that will point him towards the murderer. That same evening, however, another girl from the art school is found dead in the darkened balcony of a cinema. Convinced that she must have been silenced by Althea’s killer to prevent her from giving information to the police, Collier now has two murders to solve – and if he doesn’t hurry, the killer could strike again.

The Art School Murders is the tenth of fifteen books featuring Hugh Collier, but it works perfectly as a standalone and it’s definitely not necessary to have read any of the previous books – although, having enjoyed this one, I will be doing so now! I liked Collier as a detective; he may not be as interesting as a Poirot or a Holmes, but he’s polite, good-natured and intelligent, handling his investigations with fairness and compassion.

Originally published in 1943, this book uses the war as a backdrop very effectively. The story is set in a village a short drive away from London, and nightly blackouts are in force, making it easier for crimes to be committed under the cover of darkness. It’s November, when the days are short and the nights are long, and Dalton makes good use of this to show what it’s like walking through the streets at dusk when the light you would normally see shining from windows is blacked out and invisible.

I enjoyed this book as much or more than some of the Golden Age mysteries I’ve read by better known authors. My only criticism is that the solution seemed to come out of nowhere and I doubt many people would have guessed the culprit based on the information we are given, but otherwise Dalton held my interest from beginning to end. It’s sometimes hard to know why some authors fade into relative obscurity while others remain popular, so well done to Dean Street Press for rescuing Moray Dalton’s books and making them available to a new audience!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books set in snowy places

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This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Books Set in Snowy Places”.

I love books with snowy settings! Here are ten I’ve read and reviewed on my blog:

1. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey -The first book to come to mind is definitely Eowyn Ivey’s beautiful retelling of The Snow Maiden set in 1920s Alaska.

2. The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie – This very enjoyable standalone mystery is set in a small village cut off from the outside world by snow.

3. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton – I loved all the winter imagery in Wharton’s classic novella – it reflects the bleakness of the plot as the title character falls in love with his wife’s cousin.

4. Winter Siege by Ariana Franklin and Samantha Norman – Set in 1141 during the period of English history known as the Anarchy, heavy snowfall and a long winter siege both play a big part in the story.

5. Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden – I loved all three books in this historical fantasy trilogy set in a wintry medieval Russia (The Bear and the Nightingale, The Girl in the Tower and Winter of the Witch).

6. The Ringed Castle by Dorothy Dunnett – This book, the fifth in Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles, is set mainly in 16th century Russia where the cold, bleak landscape matches Lymond’s own state of mind as he deals with the traumas of the previous four novels.

7. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton – A large part of this novel is set outside on a snowy night as the police search for a woman who has gone missing after leaving her hotel.

8. White Corridor by Christopher Fowler – I reviewed this book, part of the Bryant and May mystery series, just last week. Our two elderly detectives become stranded in a line of cars during a snowstorm with a killer on the loose!

9. Death in Kashmir by M.M. Kaye – My favourite of Kaye’s Death In… romantic suspense novels is set at a ski resort in Kashmir, which makes for a very atmospheric and eerie setting.

10. Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards – A recent read set in the tiny, remote village of Midwinter where a group of people are taking part in a murder mystery game during a period of heavy snow.

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Have you read any of these? Which other books set in snowy places have you enjoyed?

Rainforest by Michelle Paver

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When Dr Simon Corbett, a British entomologist, arrives in the Mexican rainforest in 1973 he has two goals in mind: first, to study the rare mantids that live there – and also to try to make contact with Penelope, the woman he loved. However, both of these things prove very difficult. The mantids live in the sacred ceiba trees and Simon’s guide is reluctant to let him touch them. As for Penelope, she’s dead and Simon is hoping to obtain a special Mayan drug that will allow him to summon her spirit. No one seems prepared to cooperate with him on this either, but Simon is determined to get what he wants, one way or another.

Rainforest is written entirely from Simon’s perspective in the form of diary entries. He tells us that his doctor has advised him to keep a journal to help him cope with the ‘thoughts going round and round like angry wasps’ – although this doesn’t seem to work, as Simon’s thoughts simply become more and more unstable and obsessive as the book progresses. Simon is a man consumed by grief, remorse and guilt, yet he’s such an unlikeable narrator I found it impossible to feel any real sympathy for him. He’s also not being completely honest with the reader, even in his own journal, because the impression he initially gives of his relationship with Penelope is very different from the truth that emerges later in the novel.

This is the second book I’ve read by Michelle Paver, the first being Wakenhyrst, a Gothic novel set in the Suffolk Fens. Although I enjoyed Wakenhyrst, I remember being surprised that it wasn’t scarier, having heard her previous novels Dark Matter and Thin Air described as very creepy horror novels. Rainforest is also not a particularly scary book, despite the cover claiming that it’s a ‘terrifying supernatural tale’. I think it’s best to know that going into it, as some people may be disappointed that it’s not more terrifying, while others will be pleased! Like Wakenhyrst, though, it is still very atmospheric; the rainforest is beautifully described – Paver mentions in her author’s note that she has visited rainforests herself – but, seen through Simon’s eyes, it becomes an oppressive, claustrophobic, menacing place.

Rainforest is a fascinating novel in many ways. As well as the setting which I’ve already mentioned, Paver also explores the arrogance of the white explorer and the lack of respect for the environment and the indigenous people – referred to specifically as the Yachikel, a term Paver says she made up and based on other Mayan peoples. I also learned more about Simon’s beloved mantids than I ever knew I needed to know! Simon being such an unpleasant character, though, meant that I struggled to care about what happened to him and this stopped me from engaging with his story as much as I would have liked. Despite this, I did enjoy the book overall and will catch up with her earlier ones at some point.

Thanks to Orion for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Seascraper to The Night Circus

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It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for another Six Degrees of Separation, hosted by Kate of Books are my Favourite and Best. The idea is that Kate chooses a book to use as a starting point and then we have to link it to six other books of our choice to form a chain. A book doesn’t have to be connected to all of the others on the list – only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month we’re starting with Seascraper by Benjamin Wood. I read it last month for Novellas in November and loved it. Here’s what it’s about:

Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach to scrape for shrimp; spending the rest of the day selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.

When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?

Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.

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Seascraper reminded me very much of The Horseman by Tim Pears (1), first in a trilogy of novels set in Devon in the early 20th century. They are both quiet, gentle novels with rural settings and descriptions of the protagonist’s daily work (catching shrimp for Thomas, farming tasks for Leo in The Horseman). Horses also play an important role in both novels. I still haven’t continued with the trilogy and haven’t decided if I want to as I didn’t enjoy the first book as much as I’d hoped.

The title of the Tim Pears book made me think of the headless horseman in Washington Irving’s classic short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (2). First published in 1820, it’s set in an old Dutch settlement in New York and revolves around the legend of a ghostly soldier who lost his head in battle and rides through Sleepy Hollow every night in search of his missing head. You may have seen the 1999 Tim Burton adaptation, but the original story is definitely worth reading as well.

Another book with the word ‘hollow’ in the title is The Hollow by Agatha Christie (3). The Hollow is the name of a country house where a group of people have gathered for the weekend when a murder takes place. This is a Poirot novel although he doesn’t play as big a part in it as he usually does and Christie herself described it as “the one I ruined by the introduction of Poirot”.

The Hollow was published in 1946 and so was Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes (4). The novel is set in Santa Fe during the Fiesta festival, which ends with the burning of Zozobra, a wooden effigy symbolic of worries and gloom. The story follows Sailor, a blackmailer on the trail of a senator whose wife has been murdered. I loved this book mainly for the setting but was also gripped by the plot.

The cover of the Hughes novel brings to mind the carved wooden horses on the carousel in Fiza Saeed McLynn’s The Midnight Carousel (5). The carousel of the title was built for the Grand Exhibition in Paris by Gilbert Cloutier and gains a sinister reputation when Gilbert disappears immediately afterwards. As the years go by and more people disappear while riding the carousel horses, Detective Laurent Bisset begins to investigate. I read this book earlier this year and really enjoyed it.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (6) is the obvious next link. Both books have fairground/circus settings and a similar magical atmosphere, although this one is more fantasy whereas the Saeed McLynn is a mystery. Although I found the plot and characters slightly disappointing, I loved the vivid descriptions of Le Cirque des Rêves, or the Circus of Dreams, and wished I could visit it myself!

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And that’s my chain for December! My links have included: rural life, horsemen, the word ‘hollow’, books published in 1946, carousel horses and fairground/circus settings.

Nest month is a wildcard to begin the year. We can either start with the book we finished this month’s chain with or, if we didn’t participate in December, begin with the last book we read.

The Official Agatha Christie Puzzle Book

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This is a book I received last Christmas (a present from my sister) and now that I’ve completed all of the puzzles in it, and with Christmas almost here again, I thought I would post a short review. It would make a great gift for any friends or family members who are Agatha Christie fans.

The book is divided into sections, with each one themed around a different Christie novel. For example, Chapter 5 is based on The ABC Murders, so many of the puzzles involve the alphabet or the letters A, B and C, while Chapter 9, Murder on the Orient Express, has puzzles about trains and snow. A few of them do require a knowledge of the original novel, but the majority could be solved even if you’d never read Christie before.

The puzzles in the book are nicely varied and range from crosswords and wordsearches to anagrams, logic puzzles and many more. I found some of them very easy to solve, but others were much more challenging. There are solutions included at the back of the book if you get stuck!

Each chapter ends with a letter written by Charles, a new librarian at Greenway, Christie’s old holiday home which is now a museum owned by the National Trust. The letters are addressed to his Aunt Mary and relate to the disappearance of the former librarian, Mrs Ashmore, who has gone missing, leaving behind a bundle of puzzles for Charles to solve. This framing story helps to tie the whole book together, as the mystery of Mrs Ashmore’s disappearance can only be solved once you’ve completed all of the other puzzles in the book.

If you already own this book, or if it doesn’t appeal, maybe you would prefer The Offical Poirot Puzzle Book, which has just been released in time for Christmas. There’s also The Official Agatha Christie After School Detectives Club aimed at children aged 8 and up, so something for all the family!