The Best New Historical Fiction Books Out in October 2026

The author of perhaps the only speculative bestseller with that many footnotes has a short story set in the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. And it’s illustrated! The story following the Bishop of Durham, who sets off on a somewhat self-serving mission to unite human and fairy kind as a legion of trees trap his city, is set 700 years before Clarke’s debut novel. She previously published another short story, The Wood at Midwinter, and a short story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, set in the same world. —S. Zainab Williams

Kat Dunn’s Hungerstone reimagined the classic vampire novel Carmilla. Now her latest is a sapphic Victorian-era retelling of Hamlet. When Odette’s artist mother, Lydia, suddenly and mysteriously dies, Odette’s aunt Claudine steps in and takes complete control over the household. That’s when Lydia’s ghost starts stalking around the house, claiming she’s been murdered and asking her daughter to take revenge. —Emily Martin

The award-winning Li’s latest is historical fiction that sweeps across late 18th-century Dublin, England, Russia, and India as it explores the story of the talented pianist Adelaide Percheron and her future husband, John Field (who invented the term “nocturne”), and their lives as ambitious artists. —Erica Ezeifedi

In 1920s Berlin, Hannah revels in the opportunity to escape traditional women’s roles by joining the underground art scene. She has to work as a tailor to make ends meet, but then she gets the opportunity of a lifetime: she’s commissioned to paint a series of nude portraits. When they’re done, though, she finds that they’ve been altered and credited to a male artist. Now, she’s out for revenge. This is a story of art forgery, queer desire, and Jewish resistance that promises to be Portrait of a Lady on Fire meets The Safekeep. —Danika Ellis

A retired photographer begins to hear something strange and unsettling beneath her regular tinnitus: the murders of women she knew in her punk youth in 1980s New York. She sets out to solve the mystery of an unspeakable crime done to these women, forcing her to reckon with her own painful past. This isn’t the first book with a middle-aged woman protagonist Cardinal has given us, and I say, keep ’em comin’! —Vanessa Diaz

A look at corruption, police violence, and race through one white-washed Black cop in Atlanta.

It’s the early ’90s in this buzzy new release, and George Washington Jonson joins the police force after serving abroad in the US army. After 10 years as a cop, one night changes everything: during patrol, a confrontation with a white teen turns violent, and Jonson’s life gets split open and some uncomfrtable truths get revealed. —Erica Ezeifedi

This wild novel kicks off when failed thief Judith Ban is hired by an extremely wealthy family to pretend to be their missing granddaughter at the Scarlet Ball. Wearing the girl’s face stitched over her own, Judith must participate in deadly games in order to win the hand of a wealthy husband. And the winner doesn’t just get a mate, but also unimaginable power in a very small, elite club. But the losers…well, let’s just say you don’t want to lose. —Liberty Hardy