Historical fiction in 2026 is fearless, imaginative, and deeply human—revisiting the past not as a distant record, but as a living, breathing world shaped by power, desire, betrayal, and survival. From Tudor courts and Ancient Rome to Cold War Moscow and myth-infused reimaginings of history’s most misunderstood women, this year’s standout novels blur the line between fact and fiction in thrilling new ways.
Curated by Storizen, this list of the 9 Best Historical Fiction Books of 2026 celebrates stories that reclaim forgotten voices, challenge accepted narratives, and immerse readers in moments where personal fate collides with the sweep of history.
1. The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten White
A dangerous fascination with a breathtaking killer pulls a vampire hunter’s daughter into a dark, immortal love in this richly atmospheric gothic fantasy from the author of Lucy Undying.
Anneke Van Helsing has always lived in the shadow of her father, Abraham Van Helsing—a revered doctor whose brilliance is inseparable from his obsession with vampires. Their strained relationship ends abruptly when Anneke comes home to find him brutally murdered, a surreal and beautiful woman standing over his body before disappearing into the night.
As more unexplained deaths follow, Anneke channels her grief into vengeance, assembling a small team of investigators and using cutting-edge forensic methods to track the elusive serial killer. Yet she withholds crucial evidence: a series of taunting, intimate letters written only to her, sometimes stained with blood and always signed with the same name—Diavola. The obsession runs both ways, and it grows more perilous with every exchange.
The closer Anneke comes to the truth, the more the world begins to unravel. Her father’s once-unthinkable theories start to feel disturbingly real, and Diavola may be something far more terrifying than a murderer. But as Anneke uncovers fragments of Diavola’s tragic past, she senses a lingering humanity—a heart still beating within an undead body, and beating for Anneke alone.
2. The Queen’s Maid by Rozsa Gaston
The Tudor saga continues with a richly detailed new chapter, perfect for readers who enjoy the historical worlds of courtly intrigue, ambition, and survival.
In 1514, Anne Boleyn arrives in France after an eye-opening period of training at the sophisticated court of Margaret of Austria. Now placed at the Palace of Tournelles, she finds herself serving the ageing King Louis and his young English bride, Mary Tudor. Fluent in French, Anne is quickly drawn into an important role as Queen Mary’s translator, giving her rare access to the inner workings of the French royal household.
But court life is rarely simple. Anne’s sister Mary is also present, and tensions simmer beneath the surface as political ambitions clash. Louise of Savoy, cousin by marriage to the king, is determined to prevent Queen Mary from producing an heir—ensuring that her own son, Francis, will one day inherit the throne. With rival interests pulling at her loyalties, Anne soon realises that neutrality may be impossible.
Caught between powerful figures and dangerous expectations, Anne must learn to navigate the delicate politics of the French court. As she strives to prove herself as one of the queen’s trusted maids, every decision carries risk. Her intelligence and ambition may secure her future—or her divided loyalties could cost her everything.
3. Anneke Jans in the New World by Sandra Freels
Published to coincide with New York’s 400th anniversary, this sweeping historical novel brings to life the courage and resilience of a young woman forging a future in an unfamiliar land.
In 1630, Anneke Jans arrives in the fragile Dutch colony of New Netherland with her husband, Roelof, and their two small daughters, leaving behind the uncertainties of the Old World for the promise of something better. Life in the colony is harsh and unpredictable, and as one of the few women there, Anneke quickly understands that survival will depend on her ability to think independently and shape her own path.
After Roelof’s untimely death, Anneke remarries Everardus Bogardus, the outspoken and charismatic minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. The marriage elevates her social standing, drawing her into the upper circles of colonial life—but it also pulls her into dangerous political conflict when the colony’s new director sparks war with the region’s Indigenous peoples and her husband becomes a leading voice against it.
As tensions rise and threats close in from all sides, Anneke must rely on her intelligence, strength, and determination to protect her family and secure their future. Inspired by real events, Anneke Jans in the New World tells the remarkable story of an ordinary woman whose courage shaped an extraordinary life.
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4. Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi
They know her name—but they have never truly known her. History reduced her to whispers and accusations, branding her a seductress, a sorceress, a monster. This is the story that refuses those lies and speaks in her own voice at last.
She was not ruled by desire, but by devotion. Not gifted by witchcraft, but blessed by the gods. Not driven by bloodlust, but by an unyielding need to protect her children and her kingdom. Again and again, the world chose to misunderstand her, unable—or unwilling—to accept that a woman could be powerful, brilliant, and divinely chosen to rule.
Now, death no longer holds her silence. This is not a tale of downfall or defeat, but of survival, strategy, love, and legacy. It is the story of how she lived, how she fought, and how she shaped her fate in a world determined to erase her truth.
From Saara El-Arifi, the #1 bestselling author of Faebound and The Final Strife, this bold and epic novel reclaims Cleopatra on her own terms—powerful, complex, and unforgettable. A groundbreaking reimagining that challenges history itself, this is Cleopatra as she has never been told before.
5. Agrippa by Robert Harris
The Sunday Times number one bestselling author returns to Ancient Rome with a gripping new thriller, set for release in August 2026—a powerful exploration of ambition, loyalty, and the true cost of empire.
Julius Caesar is dead, and in the aftermath, two teenage lives are thrown into the heart of Roman power. One is his seventeen-year-old great-nephew, Octavius, unexpectedly named heir. The other is Agrippa, Octavius’s closest companion—steadfast, intelligent, and fiercely loyal. Together, they stand against the titans of Rome, and against all expectations, they prevail. Octavius rises to become Augustus, and for two decades, the two young men rule the known world side by side.
Now fifty and in failing health, Agrippa has withdrawn to his home on the Bay of Naples. Betrayed in his personal life and increasingly isolated, he turns to writing his memoirs, hoping to make sense of a life shaped by power and war. But memory is dangerous terrain, and revisiting the past means confronting truths long buried.
From his first encounters with Caesar to the brutal struggle against Mark Antony and Cleopatra, from the thunder of the Battle of Actium to the relentless campaigns that built an empire, Agrippa reveals the man who defined his destiny: Octavius himself—brilliant, calculating, and impossible to truly know. In a world ruled by power, the novel asks a haunting question: can friendship survive when one man must stand above all others?
6. Cold Sunset by William Boyd
Cold War Moscow is thick with suspicion, where every conversation feels overheard and every shadow hides a secret. Gabriel Dax is sent on what should be a simple mission: deliver a rare Blanco drawing to the celebrated defector Kit Caldwell. But Caldwell is terrified. Convinced the KGB believes he has betrayed them again, he wants to disappear—immediately.
Drawn deeper into the crisis by his elusive handler, Faith Green, Gabriel finds himself navigating a maze of half-truths, conflicting orders, and increasingly dangerous escape plans. Each step forward raises new doubts about who can be trusted and who is already compromised.
As pressure mounts, Gabriel must balance loyalty against self-preservation, unsure whether he is helping a desperate man or walking straight into a trap. In a city built on secrets, even good intentions can be deadly, and the line between devotion and deception grows perilously thin.
Cold Sunset, the third novel featuring the reluctant spy Gabriel Dax, plunges readers into a tense, morally complex world of espionage. From acclaimed author William Boyd, this is a tightly crafted thriller where motives blur, loyalties fracture, and survival is never guaranteed.
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7. The Midnight Guests by Alex Hay
In 1923, London is dazzled by the opening of its most extravagant new hotel, the creation of the formidable Diana Gold. As champagne sparkles and chandeliers glow, the city’s elite pour through its doors—millionaires and gamblers, film stars and royalty, all gathered to witness the night everyone will talk about for years to come.
Yet amid the glamour, Diana waits for two guests who have not arrived. They are powerful, dangerous figures from her past—the ones who pulled her from the gutter and shaped her into the woman she is today. Their arrival will decide her future: success beyond imagination if all goes to plan, or total ruin if it doesn’t.
Because this hotel is far more than a glittering playground for the wealthy. It is the centrepiece of Diana’s carefully constructed scheme. Over the course of twenty-four charged hours, her guests will begin to understand why they were truly invited—and Diana intends to manage every detail, unless someone moves against her first.
Then a body is discovered deep within the hotel, and the opening night descends into chaos. Secrets surface, alliances fracture, and Diana’s perfect control begins to slip. What began as a triumph of ambition turns into a deadly game where survival depends on who strikes first.
8. The Keeper by Tana French
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunter and widely hailed as the queen of Irish crime fiction, this haunting novel unravels a story of buried truths, quiet betrayals, and a community on the edge of collapse.
In a remote Irish village, a young girl is found dead in the river on an otherwise ordinary night. Her death sends a tremor through the town, threatening to expose secrets that many would rather keep hidden—and consequences that could destroy the fragile peace holding the community together.
Cal Hooper, a former Chicago detective, came to West Ireland to escape exactly this kind of darkness. He has built a modest, hard-won life with his fiancée Lena and Trey Reddy, the once-feral teenager he helped raise into someone fierce and resilient. But when a shady businessman and his volatile son begin buying up land across the countryside, Cal senses something rotten beneath the surface—and a possible link to the girl’s death.
Drawn back into investigation against his will, Cal must navigate a maze of rumors, old grudges, and simmering violence as tensions rise and loyalties fracture. With lives and futures at stake, he races to uncover the truth before the town—and the people he loves—are torn apart beyond repair. In this powerful and atmospheric finale, Tana French delivers a masterful exploration of loss, justice, and the devastating cost of leaving the past unexamined.
9. The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann
Disgraced, executed, and silenced by history—until now. This daring novel asks a provocative question: what if Anne Boleyn did not stay dead? What if she woke the morning after her execution and decided to claim justice on her own terms?
The story opens in the hours after Anne Boleyn is beheaded, discarded in a crude coffin, her head wrapped in linen at her feet. Condemned by Henry VIII for failing to produce a male heir and destroyed by political enemies who feared her intelligence, Anne was executed on false charges designed to erase her. But death does not end her story—it ignites it.
Anne escapes the Tower of London, stitches her head back onto her body, and sets out across England to stop Henry from marrying Jane Seymour. If Jane bears a son, Anne’s daughter Elizabeth will lose everything. Disguised as a commoner, Anne encounters a brutal, magical world far removed from courtly illusion, aided by an unexpected ally—a prostitute who becomes her confidante, protector, and perhaps something more.
Blending Tudor history with myth, danger, and Arthurian echoes, The Beheading Game is a bold, darkly imaginative reclamation of a woman history tried to reduce to scandal. In this electrifying debut, Rebecca Lehmann gives Anne Boleyn what she was never allowed in life: a voice, a reckoning, and the chance to fight back.
Together, these novels prove why historical fiction continues to evolve—becoming darker, bolder, and more emotionally resonant with every passing year. Whether it’s Anne Boleyn refusing to stay silenced, Cleopatra reclaiming her truth, or ordinary women navigating extraordinary times, each book on this list offers a fresh lens on the past and urgent questions for the present. The 9 Best Historical Fiction Books of 2026, curated by Storizen, are not just stories set in history—they are powerful reimaginings that remind us who gets remembered, who gets erased, and why storytelling still matters.
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