The historical mystery or historical whodunit is a subgenre of two literary genres, historical fiction and mystery fiction. These works are set in a time period considered historical from the author's perspective, and the central plot involves the solving of a mystery or crime. Though works combining these genres have existed since at least the early 20th century, many credit Ellis Peters's Cadfael Chronicles (1977–1994) for popularizing what would become known as the historical mystery. The increasing popularity and prevalence of this type of fiction in subsequent decades has spawned a distinct subgenre recognized by the publishing industry and libraries. Publishers Weekly noted in 2010 of the genre, "The past decade has seen an explosion in both quantity and quality. Never before have so many historical mysteries been published, by so many gifted writers, and covering such a wide range of times and places." Editor Keith Kahla concurs, "From a small group of writers with a very specialized audience, the historical mystery has become a critically acclaimed, award-winning genre with a toehold on the New York Times bestseller list."
Steven Barnes is an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. He has written novels, short fiction, screen plays for television, scripts for comic books, animation, newspaper copy, and magazine articles.
Blair Erwin Underwood is an American actor. He made his debut in the 1985 musical film Krush Groove and from 1987 to 1994 starred as attorney Jonathan Rollins in the NBC legal drama series L.A. Law.
Linda Barnes is an American mystery writer.
John Twelve Hawks is the pseudonym of an author of four novels and one short non-fiction book. His legal name and identity are unknown.
Tananarive Priscilla Due is an American author and educator. Due won the American Book Award for her novel The Living Blood (2001). She is also known as a film historian with expertise in Black horror. Due teaches a course at UCLA called "The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival and the Black Horror Aesthetic", which focuses on the Jordan Peele film Get Out.
Karin Slaughter is an American crime writer. She has written 24 novels, which have sold more than 40 million copies and have been published in 120 countries. Her first novel, Blindsighted (2001), was published in 27 languages and made the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award shortlist for "Best Thriller Debut" of 2001.
Lee Goldberg is an American author, screenwriter, publisher and producer known for his bestselling novels Lost Hills and True Fiction and his work on a wide variety of TV crime series, including Diagnosis: Murder, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Hunter, Spenser: For Hire, Martial Law, She-Wolf of London, SeaQuest, 1-800-Missing, The Glades and Monk.
The Sea of Monsters is an American fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology written by Rick Riordan and published in 2006. It is the second novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and the sequel to The Lightning Thief. This book chronicles the adventures of thirteen-year-old demigod Percy Jackson as he and his friends rescue his satyr friend Grover from the Cyclops Polyphemus and save Camp Half-Blood from a Titan's attack by bringing the Golden Fleece to cure Thalia's poisoned pine tree.
Benjamin Thomas Barnes is an English film, stage and television actor. He is best known for his roles as Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia film series (2008–2010), Logan Delos in Westworld (2016–2020), Billy Russo/Jigsaw in the Marvel series The Punisher (2017–2019), and The Darkling in the Netflix series Shadow and Bone (2021–2023).
My Soul to Keep is a 1997 novel by American writer Tananarive Due. It is the first book in Due's African Immortals series and was followed by The Living Blood (2001). The third book in the series, Blood Colony, was published in 2008.
The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard—who hike into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland, in 1994 to film a documentary about a local myth known as the Blair Witch. The three disappear, but their equipment and footage are discovered a year later. The purportedly "found footage" is the movie the viewer sees.
Amazon Publishing is Amazon's book publishing unit launched in 2009. It is composed of 15 imprints including AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, 47North, and Topple Books.
Ironside is an American police drama television series created by Collier Young. It aired on NBC from October 2 to October 23, 2013 during the 2013–14 television season. It was a remake of the original television series Ironside, which ran from 1967 to 1975. It starred Blair Underwood as the title character, wheelchair-using cop Robert Ironside, the only character re-created from the original series. The remade Ironside was grittier and considerably more violent than the original, and the setting was changed from San Francisco to New York City.
The Lord John series is a sequence of historical mystery novels and shorter works written by Diana Gabaldon that center on Lord John Grey, a recurring secondary character in the author's Outlander series. Secretly homosexual "in a time when that particular predilection could get one hanged," the character has been called "one of the most complex and interesting" of the hundreds of characters in Gabaldon's Outlander novels. Starting with the 1998 novella Lord John and the Hellfire Club, the Lord John spin-off series currently consists of six novellas and three novels.
James "Jamie" Fraser is a fictional character in the Outlander series of multi-genre novels by American author Diana Gabaldon, and its television adaptation. In the series, married World War II nurse Claire Randall is visiting Scotland when she is transported through time from 1945 back to 1743. There she finds adventure, war and romance with the dashing Highland warrior Jamie Fraser, a member of Gabaldon's fictionalized Clan Fraser of Lovat. Jamie also appears in two novels in the Lord John series of historical mysteries, and in the 2013 novella Virgins.
Randall Hicks is an American writer and attorney.
Moonflower Murders is a 2020 mystery novel by British author Anthony Horowitz and the second novel in the Susan Ryeland series. The story focuses on the disappearance of a hotel employee and uses a story within a story format.
Eso Won Books, an independent bookstore located at 4327 Degnan Boulevard in the Historic Leimert Park Village neighborhood of South Los Angeles, was one of the largest Black-owned bookstores in the U.S. In 2021, Publishers Weekly awarded the business Bookstore of the Year.
Three Women is an American television series based on the 2019 book of the same name by Lisa Taddeo that was initially set to premiere on Showtime. On January 30, 2023, Deadline reported that Showtime had decided not to air the completed series. Starz picked up the series a week later. All 10 episodes of season one premiered on February 16, 2024, in Australia on Stan.
