Historical Fiction – Page 23 – Trigger Warning Database

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans by Agatha Christie

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie

While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. The man opens his eyes and with his last breath says, “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” Haunted by those words, Bobby and his vivacious companion, Frankie, set out to solve a mystery that will bring them into mortal danger. . .

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Sexism
Suicide
Murder
Kidnapping

What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster

What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster

A community in the Piedmont of North Carolina rises in outrage as a county initiative draws students from the largely Black east side of town into predominantly white high schools on the west. For two students, Gee and Noelle, the integration sets off a chain of events that will tie their two families together in unexpected ways over the span of the next twenty years. On one side of the integration, debate is Jade, Gee’s steely, ambitious mother. In the aftermath of a harrowing loss, she is determined to give her son the tools he’ll need to survive in America as a sensitive, anxious… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Infidelity
Alcohol abuse
Abortion
Miscarriage
Death of a parent
Murder
Gun violence
Animal abuse

Duchess by Design by Maya Rodale

Duchess by Design by Maya Rodale

Seeking a wealthy American bride who can save his family’s estate, Brandon Fiennes, the duke of Kingston, is a rogue determined to do the right thing. But his search for an heiress goes deliciously awry when an enchanting seamstress tumbles into his arms instead. Miss Adeline Black aspires to be a fashionable dressmaker—not a duchess—and not even an impossibly seductive duke will distract her. But Kingston makes an offer she can’t refuse: join him at society events to display her gowns and advise him on which heiresses are duchess material. It’s the perfect plan—as long as they resist temptation, avoid a scandal… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexism
Sexual harassment

Wait for Me by Caroline Leech

Wait for Me by Caroline Leech

It’s 1945, and Lorna Anderson’s life on her father’s farm in Scotland consists of endless chores and rationing, knitting Red Cross scarves, and praying for an Allied victory. So when Paul Vogel, a German prisoner of war, is assigned as the new farmhand, Lorna is appalled. How can she possibly work alongside the enemy when her own brothers are risking their lives for their country? But as Lorna reluctantly spends time with Paul, she feels herself changing. The more she learns about him—from his time in the war to his life back home in Germany—the more she sees the boy behind the soldier. Soon Lorna is battling her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Sexual assault
War camps & prisoners of war
World War Two (theme)

Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard

Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard

Year One-Knife, Tenochtitlan the capital of the Aztecs. Human sacrifice and the magic of the living blood are the only things keeping the sun in the sky and the earth fertile. A Priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood. It should be a usual investigation for Acatl, High Priest of the Dead–except that his estranged brother is involved, and the the more he digs, the deeper he is drawn into the political and magical intrigues of noblemen, soldiers, and priests-and of the gods themselves…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Cheating
Body & eye horror
Torture
Animal death

A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

In 1982, Evelyn’s daughter, Jackie, is a frazzled single mother grappling with her absent husband’s drug addiction. Just as she comes to terms with his abandoning the family, he returns, ready to resume their old life. Jackie must decide if the promise of her husband is worth the near certainty he’ll leave again. Jackie’s son, T.C., loves the creative process of growing marijuana more than the weed itself. He finds something hypnotic about training the seedlings, testing the levels, trimming the leaves, and drying the buds. He was a square before Hurricane Katrina, but the New Orleans he knew didn’t survive the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism
Racism
Fatmisia & body shaming
Domestic violence
Substance addiction
War themes

Fevre Dream by George RR Martin

Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin

Abner Marsh, a struggling riverboat captain, suspects that something’s amiss when he is approached by a wealthy aristocrat with a lucrative offer. The hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York doesn’t care that the icy winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh’s dilapidated fleet; nor does he care that he won’t earn back his investment in a decade. York’s reasons for traversing the powerful Mississippi are to be none of Marsh’s concern—no matter how bizarre, arbitrary, or capricious York’s actions may prove. Not until the maiden voyage of Fevre Dream does Marsh realize that he has joined a mission both more sinister… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Slavery
Racism & racial slurs
Rape
Infanticide

The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot

The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot

Lottie collects dead creatures and lovingly cares for them, hoping to preserve them, to save them from disintegration. Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does. And her mother? Lottie’s mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism & racial slurs
Sexism
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a mother
Kidnapping & captivity
Hostage situation
Blackmail
Fire
Drowning
Building collapse
Colonialism
Graphic animal death & dead bodies (theme)

The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian

The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian

1943: Tucked away in the idyllic hills south of Florence, the Rosatis, an Italian family of noble lineage, believe that the walls of their ancient villa will keep them safe from the war raging across Europe. Eighteen-year-old Cristina spends her days swimming in the pool, playing with her young niece and nephew, and wandering aimlessly amid the estate’s gardens and olive groves. But when two soldiers, a German and an Italian, arrive at the villa asking to see an ancient Etruscan burial site, the Rosatis’ bucolic tranquillity is shattered. A young German lieutenant begins to court Cristina, the Nazis descend upon the estate demanding… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Antisemitism & Nazism
Murder of a sister-in-law
World War Two

The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

In 1893, there was no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box. But when the Eastwood sisters–James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna–join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women’s movement into the witch’s movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism
Sexism
Homomisia & internalised homomisia
Threats of sexual assault
Sexual harassment
Child abandonment
Physical & psychological child abuse
Pregnancy & childbirth
Abortion mentioned
Forced hospitalisation
Death of a parent
Attempted execution
Kidnapping
Torture, off-page
Imprisonment
Loss of autonomy (mind control)
Animal death & abuse