Benedict, Marie. The Queens of Crime. St. Martin’s. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9781250280756. 320p. $29. HISTORICAL FICTION

Bestselling Benedict (The Mitford Affair) sets her newest in 1930s London, as five women crime writers form a secret society to claim their position in the world. The club includes Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy. To prove their point, they plan to solve a real locked-room murder. With a 250K-copy first printing.

Fancher, Charles B. Red Clay. Blackstone. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9798212408691. 373p. $27.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Journalist Fancher debuts with a multigenerational saga set during the end of the Civil War, the beginning of Reconstruction, and through Jim Crow. In 1943, a white woman shows up at the house of a Black family, stating that her ancestors once enslaved theirs. Thus begins a sweeping story that crosses the globe and reveals the history of both families.

Durham, Elyse. Maya & Natasha. Mariner. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9780063393615. 400p. $30. HISTORICAL FICTION

Durham, a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers nominee, debuts with a 75K-copy first printing for her novel set in the world of Soviet ballet. Twin sisters, abandoned by their mother, are raised in the Vaganova Ballet Academy and are ultimately pitted against each other as freedom and opportunity, East and West, collide.

Eckstine, Erin Crosby. Junie. Ballantine. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9780593725115. 368p. $30. HISTORICAL FICTION

Eckstine debuts with a story set during the Civil War as the 16-year-old and enslaved Junie sees a new threat in her life, triggering the ghost of her dead sister and presenting her with choices that limn questions of love and power.

Epstein, Linda & others. The Other March Sisters. Kensington. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9781496750259. 368p. $28. HISTORICAL FICTION

Written by three authors, one of whom is a librarian, one a literary agent, and one an herbalist and witch, this queer retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women focuses on Meg, Beth, and Amy and draws inspiration from Alcott’s own sisters.

Galland, Nicole. Boy. Morrow. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9780063342859. 352p. $30. HISTORICAL FICTION

Galland, who cowrote The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. with Neal Stephenson, sets her newest in the theaters and intellectual solons of Elizabethan London, as Francis Bacon serves as the nexus of two friends, Alexander, an actor in William Shakespeare’s company who famously plays women characters, and Joan Buckler, a woman who is only allowed to study science disguised as a man.

Grant, Gail Milissa. The Sable Cloak. Grand Central. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9781538742006. 320p. $28. HISTORICAL FICTION

Award-winner Grant (At the Elbows of My Elders: One Family’s Journey Toward Civil Rights) turns to fiction with a novel set in St. Louis during the Jim Crow era, modeled on her own family history. Jordan Sable is a Black undertaker and political boss who, alongside his powerhouse wife, builds an upper middle-class life for his family—until tragedy threatens their legacy.

Haw, Penny. Follow Me to Africa. Sourcebooks Landmark. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9781728295459. pbk. 304p. $17.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Haw (The Invincible Miss Cust) returns with her third historical, this time spanning two timelines (1935 and 1983) and featuring dual points of view as it traces the intergenerational friendship between the real-life archaeologist Mary Leakey and Anne, the 17-year-old daughter of a colleague who reminds Mary of her younger self.

Jenoff, Pam. Last Twilight in Paris. Park Row. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9780778307983. 352p. $28.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Bestselling Jenoff (Code Name Sapphire) returns with the story of a woman who discovers a necklace in a secondhand store, launching her on a quest to discover the history of her friend who died during WWII. Jenoff’s tale is also a love story and details the history of a Paris department store that the Nazis converted into a prison. With a 150K-copy first printing.

Joshi, Alka. Six Days in Bombay. MIRA. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9780778368533. 352p. $28.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Joshi, bestselling author of The Henna Artist, a Reese’s Book Club pick being developed by Netflix, returns with the story of a young Anglo Indian nurse who travels across Europe to find answers when a famous painter dies in her care. The painter, Mira Novak, is inspired by the real-life artist Amrita Sher-Gil. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Kelly, Julia. The Dressmakers of London. Gallery. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9781668032725. pbk. 432p. $18.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Kelly (The Lost English Girl; A Traitor in Whitehall) sets her newest in WWII London, where two estranged sisters jointly inherit their mother’s dressmaking shop and must rely upon each other to save the business and, perhaps by doing so, heal old wounds.

Lending, Tod. The Umbrella Maker’s Son: A Novel of WWII. Harper Paperbacks. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9780063413849. pbk. 400p. $18.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Lending, an Academy Award–nominated director and producer, debuts with the story of 17-year-old Reuven, a Jewish boy who creates umbrellas with his father in Poland. When the Nazis invade, Reuven’s girlfriend, Zelda, disappears. With terror all around him, Reuven tries to find her. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Moon, Shara. Let Us March On. Morrow Paperbacks. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9780063213425. pbk. 384p. $18.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Moon debuts with the story of Lizzie McDuffie, the real-life woman who led the civil rights movement of the FDR era, worked as a maid in the White House, and called herself FDR’s “Secretary on Colored People’s Affairs.”

Tiffany, Grace. The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter: The Continuing Adventures of Judith Shakespeare. Harper. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9780063380530. 256p. $30. HISTORICAL FICTION

Tiffany, a professor of Renaissance drama, offers a sequel to My Father Had a Daughter, a Book Sense 76 Best Book. Judith Shakespeare, a midwife-apothecary and daughter of William, flees Stratford lest she be declared a witch. In her company are a Puritan woman and child, both caught in the violence of the bloody civil war.

Wang, Jack. The Riveter. HarperVia. Feb. 2025. ISBN 9780063081833. 320p. $30. HISTORICAL FICTION

Wang (We Two Alone) sets this historical in 1942 Vancouver, where Josiah Chang, a Chinese Canadian, is barred from joining the army and so becomes a riveter, building war ships and falling for Poppy, a singer in a navy club. Poppy’s father disapproves, but Josiah will do anything to prove himself worthy.