History can sometimes seem a bit…dry. The strange names, the unfathomable stretch of years between then and now, and the musty textbook smell of it all can make engaging with the subject difficult when so many bright, shiny new things are competing for our attention. But a date is nothing but a number—surely there were ur-Kardashians running around Sumer looking fabulous and stirring up trouble, and the Real Housewives of Assyria must have flipped over some stone tables and called each other concubine when the wineskins were drained. Some recent Indie titles have found irresistibly juicy intrigue in the far-flung past in far-flung places, capitalizing on the strangeness (and dimly-remembered-from-school familiarity) of bygone eras to give their stories of sex, crime, and politics added dimension and texture. Bonus: You look cultured when reading them!

The Year of Five Emperors (2022) by Robert Eckert, set in the Roman Empire in the year 193 C.E., opens with a bang: Laetus, commander of the Praetorian Guard, kills the wretched Commodus when the depraved emperor attempts to assault his betrothed. The intensity doesn’t let up as rival factions stop at nothing—up to and including blood sacrifices—to gain control of the empire in a bloody political drama our starred review calls “a captivating page-turner” that’s “full of engrossing period detail.”

Miriam Herin’s 2022 novel The Basilisk recasts the legendary medieval love story of Abelard and Heloise as a murder mystery. Abelard’s rival, Bernard, a monk who’s charged Abelard with heresy for his rational analyses of Catholic theology, may be linked to a string of killings. An investigation uncovers all manner of sensational secrets, from mysterious societies operating in the shadows to psychedelic rites practiced in the Holy Land. Fans of conspiracy thrillers and the occult will find much to relish in this “richly textured medieval tale told with gripping suspense, keen intelligence, and aching emotion,” per our starred review.

Rose Girl, a 2023 novel by Holly Lynn Payne, features the great 13^th-century Sufi mystic and poet Rumi, who, in this story, encounters Damascena, a mysterious girl with a startling destiny. The novel details Damascena’s brutal upbringing—she suffers under the domination of a malevolent friar eager to exploit her seemingly supernatural affinity for roses. Our starred review describes the prose as “beautifully uplifting” and calls the book “disarmingly powerful,” lauding the novel as a “a nuanced story of female resilience that reaches across the ages.”

Kat Drennan’s The Cloisonné Brooch (2020) incorporates a time-travel twist that sends a contemporary woman, Tess Madigan, back to the year 324 C.E., during the reign of Constantine. Tess experiences the era in the body of an enslaved girl, Kindra, who crafts exquisite jewelry. Where there are gems, thieves are sure to follow, and Tess/Kindra embarks on a time-hopping scramble to prevent malefactors from gaining possession of the titular piece of bling. Our review describes the novel as “a satisfying blend of action and romance, with well-developed characters and an irresistible time-travel hook.” The romance comes in when Kindra makes time with one of Constantine’s handsome guards—happily, some things never change.

Arthur Smith is an Indie editor.