1960s
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Burr (1973), Gore Vidal
Rating: 9/10 Accuracy: Well researched, with real documents and events, but Burr’s opinions of the Founding…
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The Persian Boy (1972), Mary Renault
Rating: 8/10 Accuracy: Faithful to the ancient sources on Alexander’s campaigns in Persia and India, with…
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August 1914 (1971), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Rating: 6/10 · Translated from Russian Accuracy: Exhaustive on the Russian defeat at Tannenberg, drawing on…
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The Winds of War (1971), Herman Wouk
Rating: 7/10 Accuracy: Extensive, with real figures and events rendered carefully and supplemented by a fictional…
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The Erl-King (1970), Michel Tournier
Rating: 8/10 · Translated from French (original title Le Roi des Aulnes) Accuracy: Precise on East…
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The Crystal Cave (1970), Mary Stewart
Rating: 8/10 Accuracy: Plausible post-Roman Britain, built from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s legends and what little archaeology…
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Papa Là-Bas (1968), John Dickson Carr
Rating: 6/10 Accuracy: Lively on antebellum New Orleans, with its Creole society, duelling codes and voodoo…
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Murder in Canton (1966), Robert van Gulik
Rating: 6/10 Accuracy: Vivid on the cosmopolitan port of Canton and its Arab traders, though the…
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The Willow Pattern (1965), Robert van Gulik
Rating: 6/10 Accuracy: Evocative of a plague-stricken capital and its aristocratic families, with van Gulik’s usual…
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The Council of Egypt (1963), Leonardo Sciascia
Rating: 8/10 · Translated from Italian Accuracy: Closely based on real events in 1780s–90s Palermo, including…
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The Demoniacs (1962), John Dickson Carr
Rating: 6/10 Accuracy: Good on Georgian London and on the early days of organised policing under…
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The Lacquer Screen (1962), Robert van Gulik
Rating: 7/10 Accuracy: Solid on provincial administration and on the underworld of thieves’ guilds, with van…
