86 books like Mission in Time

By Richard Scott,

Here are 86 books that Mission in Time fans have personally recommended if you like Mission in Time. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Book cover of Outlander

Teresa M. Schulz Author Of Barbed Wire and Daisies

From my list on thriller/suspense escapism with strong female protagonists, full of grit, sass, and humour.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always had a wicked imagination and loved to tell stories. Unfortunately, this had me naively believing in fairy tales and happy endings. Cinderella has a lot to answer for. My kind heart and trusting nature were a magnet for bad men, and boy, did I suffer because of it. The term “Viking Berserker” comes to mind. This is why I have a passion for reading about strong women. I’ve learned (through reading books – such as those on my recommended list) that to survive, you have to have hope for a better future, and inspiring people – within inspiring stories – can often give you that hope.

Teresa's book list on thriller/suspense escapism with strong female protagonists, full of grit, sass, and humour

Teresa M. Schulz Why did Teresa love this book?

The Author’s style is totally immersive. It begins with time travel through standing stones, and the genres multiply from there. The story has a good pace, plenty of action and adventure, humour, and a hunky scotsman… what else could you ask for?

In all seriousness, the main character is a feisty WW2 nurse who, when challenged, is ready to voice her opinions with plenty of sass. She is also strong, skilled, kind-hearted, and downright funny at times. She reminds me a lot of myself.

By Diana Gabaldon,

Why should I read it?

33 authors picked Outlander as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The first book in Diana Gabaldon’s acclaimed Outlander saga, the basis for the Starz original series.

One of the top ten best-loved novels in America, as seen on PBS’s The Great American Read!
 
Unrivaled storytelling. Unforgettable characters. Rich historical detail. These are the hallmarks of Diana Gabaldon’s work. Her New York Times bestselling Outlander novels have earned the praise of critics and captured the hearts of millions of fans. Here is the story that started it all, introducing two remarkable characters, Claire Beauchamp Randall and Jamie Fraser, in a spellbinding novel of passion and…


Book cover of 355

Jerry Aylward Author Of The Scarlet Oak: Murder, Spies, and Spirits

From my list on historical time travel mystery.

Why am I passionate about this?

Like many others, and perhaps mostly the dreamers, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with time travel, along as many others, always wondering, what if? Plus, I have a passion for American history, mostly American Revolution history, always thinking, what if you could time travel back in time to witness history in the making, or travel to the future and witness the results of decisions made today. Plus, I have an obsession with a good mystery, mainly murder mysteries. I thoroughly enjoy a good murder mystery that has (I didn’t see that coming) twists, turns, and a few good red herrings. Which you can see by the books on my list. 

Jerry's book list on historical time travel mystery

Jerry Aylward Why did Jerry love this book?

If you enjoy historical fiction, American Revolution nonfiction, mysteries, and spies, you’ll love this book.

This is by far one of my favorite novels. The code # 355 which was historically used by General George Washington’s the Culper Spy Ring to identify an unknown female spy is marked in mystery to this very day. It held my undivided attention throughout because I’m from Long Island where the Culper Spy ring operated during the revolution, I was never disappointed with the story of 355.

By Kit Sergeant,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 355 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Who was the original Agent 355? If you like the Broadway hit Hamilton, AMC's Turn, or Alexander Rose's Washington's Spies, you won't be able to put down this meticulously researched tale of family, duty, love, and betrayal!
1776: British sympathizer Margaret (Meg) Moncrieffe expects to find the carefree America she remembers as a youth when she returns from her Irish boarding school. Instead, she finds the new country at war, with her father on one side and her new love, Aaron Burr, on the other. Will her misguided attempt to end the war result in dire consequences for the Continental…


Book cover of The Traitor's Wife

Jerry Aylward Author Of The Scarlet Oak: Murder, Spies, and Spirits

From my list on historical time travel mystery.

Why am I passionate about this?

Like many others, and perhaps mostly the dreamers, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with time travel, along as many others, always wondering, what if? Plus, I have a passion for American history, mostly American Revolution history, always thinking, what if you could time travel back in time to witness history in the making, or travel to the future and witness the results of decisions made today. Plus, I have an obsession with a good mystery, mainly murder mysteries. I thoroughly enjoy a good murder mystery that has (I didn’t see that coming) twists, turns, and a few good red herrings. Which you can see by the books on my list. 

Jerry's book list on historical time travel mystery

Jerry Aylward Why did Jerry love this book?

I was captivated by this author and what many historians have long believed to be the push for Benedict Arnold to become the infamous traditor, his second wife, Peggy Shippen Arnold.

I’ve always been intrigued by history’s mysteries; this is one of the most intriguing of them all. Was she the real mastermind behind America’s most infamous act of treason? this book will invoke your suspicions, did his history get it right? 243 years later Benedict Arnold remains a household name.

By Allison Pataki,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Traitor's Wife as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A riveting historical novel about Peggy Shippen Arnold, the cunning wife of Benedict Arnold and mastermind behind America’s most infamous act of treason...

Everyone knows Benedict Arnold—the Revolutionary War general who betrayed America and fled to the British—as history’s most notorious turncoat. Many know Arnold’s co-conspirator, Major John André, who was apprehended with Arnold’s documents in his boots and hanged at the orders of General George Washington. But few know of the integral third character in the plot: a charming young woman who not only contributed to the betrayal but orchestrated it.

Socialite Peggy Shippen is half Benedict Arnold’s age…


Book cover of The Psychology of Time Travel

Jerry Aylward Author Of The Scarlet Oak: Murder, Spies, and Spirits

From my list on historical time travel mystery.

Why am I passionate about this?

Like many others, and perhaps mostly the dreamers, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with time travel, along as many others, always wondering, what if? Plus, I have a passion for American history, mostly American Revolution history, always thinking, what if you could time travel back in time to witness history in the making, or travel to the future and witness the results of decisions made today. Plus, I have an obsession with a good mystery, mainly murder mysteries. I thoroughly enjoy a good murder mystery that has (I didn’t see that coming) twists, turns, and a few good red herrings. Which you can see by the books on my list. 

Jerry's book list on historical time travel mystery

Jerry Aylward Why did Jerry love this book?

If you love time travel and murder mysteries as much as I do, you’ll love this great read.

The author has captured a compelling obsession of one of the characters in unraveling a fifty-year-old mystery. With one crucial question, can you stop a murder from occurring in the present, with a clue from the future. I enjoy a well-written whodunit mystery that pulls you into the storyline with facts and clues.

This is a must-read for any mystery reader.

By Kate Mascarenhas,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Psychology of Time Travel as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'An astonishing debut... Breathtakingly tender and wryly understated' NEW YORK TIMES. 'Genre-defying... Witty and inventive' GUARDIAN. 1967. Four female scientists invent a time travel machine. But then one of them suffers a breakdown and puts the whole project in peril... 2017. Ruby knows her Granny Bee was the scientist who went mad, but they never talk about it. Until they receive a message from the future, warning of an elderly woman's violent death... 2018. Odette found the dead women at work - shot in the head, door bolted from the inside. Now she can't get her out of her mind.…


Book cover of The History of Mr. Polly

Maureen Thorpe Author Of Tangle of Time

From my list on how magic can change your life.

Why am I passionate about this?

Maureen's book list on how magic can change your life

Maureen Thorpe Why did Maureen love this book?

This book was first published in 1910. When I think of H.G. Wells, I think of his story about a time machine but this story, which I studied in school, was about changing your life, living your dream. Magic happens when Mr. Polly attempts suicide with the result that he becomes a hero and frees himself from the chains that bind him. I learned that all is possible. One does not need to be young, beautiful, and run a 4-minute mile to achieve one’s goals. With this thought in mind, I have run a marathon and entered two triathlons, finishing both and not coming last! I began my writing career at 70 years of age and am now the author of 5 books on mystery, history, and magic. 

By H.G. Wells,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The History of Mr. Polly as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Mr Polly is an ordinary middle-aged man who is tired of his wife's nagging and his dreary job as the owner of a regional gentleman's outfitters. Faced with the threat of bankruptcy, he concludes that the only way to escape his frustrating existence is by burning his shop to the ground, and killing himself. Unexpected events, however, conspire at the last moment to lead the bewildered Mr Polly to a bright new future - after he saves a life, fakes his death, and escapes to a life of heroism, hope and ultimate happiness.


Book cover of The Time Ships

Travis I. Sivart Author Of Silver & Smith and the Jazeer's Light

From my list on sci-fi that explode the concept of reality.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always believed a story should be world changing and epic on some level. Perhaps on a personal level, perhaps in the actual sense of world changing. Whether it’s for my readers of a short story, the players in a tabletop role playing game I’m running, or the arc of a novel. Some of these books help form that idea, and others supported it later in my life. I love it when a tale shakes my world—in addition to the world of the characters—and makes me question what I believe. With a doctorate in metaphysics and a love of fantasy and sci-fi, I’m always looking for ways to shake up my worldview!

Travis' book list on sci-fi that explode the concept of reality

Travis I. Sivart Why did Travis love this book?

Picking up where HG Wells left off at the end of The Time Machine, Stephen Baxter takes the story to places Wells never imagined. There’s a point in time, near the climax of this book, that I had to set it down and just stare into nothingness. The concept and the execution of the story was mind-blowing, and I had to take a few minutes to come down off that high. Besides that, the entire story is a helluva ride that seems to never end!

By Stephen Baxter,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Time Ships as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The highly-acclaimed sequel to H G Wells's THE TIME MACHINE.

Written to celebrate the centenary of the publication of H G Wells's classic story The Time Machine, Stephen Baxter's stunning sequel is an outstanding work of imaginative fiction.

The Time Traveller has abandoned his charming and helpless Eloi friend Weena to the cannibal appetites of the Morlocks, the devolved race of future humans from whom he was forced to flee. He promptly embarks on a second journey to the year AD 802,701, pledged to rescue Weena. He never arrives! The future was changed by his presence... and will be changed…


Book cover of Forever His

Kathy L Wheeler Author Of Captivated By His Countess

From my list on romance to keep you turning when you want to sleep.

Why am I passionate about this?

I began my own writing journey in 2007. I skipped many HS classes just to stay home and read. I want to know the ending of a story. I want happy ending. Life is hard, but when I have the ability to write the stories I write with the ending that so many are deprived of, at least I know I can find it in a book of my own choosing. That is my love of romance.

Kathy's book list on romance to keep you turning when you want to sleep

Kathy L Wheeler Why did Kathy love this book?

Back to romance! This is a time travel story about a woman who is keeping something vital from her family.

She’s the middle child and suffers from that insecurity of not quite having found her place. She is seriously depressed. But the moon, an eclipse, timing, the house she’s in… all play a part in this excellent tale that brings the medieval times front and center.

The author really delivers a knock-out punch to the gut and hope really is lost until this hero comes to his senses. But when he does… well, suffice it to say, you won’t be disappointed. 

By Shelly Thacker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Forever His as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

On New Year’s Eve, she tumbles 700 years back in time--and into the bed of a darkly dangerous knight.

Sir Gaston de Varennes wanted a docile bride who would fit into his plans for vengeance and justice, but a trick of time finds him married to a thoroughly modern American lady who turns his castle, his life, and his heart upside down. Will her desperate secret tear them apart after only a few bittersweet weeks of stolen passion—or will they conquer mistrust, treachery, and time itself to discover a love that spans the centuries?

Winner of the National Readers Choice…


Book cover of King of Shadows

Fred Van Lente Author Of Never Sleep

From my list on historical mysteries/thrillers set before World War II.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love historical fiction because it’s the next best thing to the invention of time travel. Books can immerse you in a time and a place in a way that comics and movies can only gesture at. For books like Never Sleep I even make sure to cook the foods my characters are eating, to make sure the era is evoked for the readers in all five sense. I love fantasy and science fiction as the next person, but the idea of transporting people to times and places that actually happened, to the best of my skill as a dramatist and researcher, is a challenge I find irresistible as an author. 

Fred's book list on historical mysteries/thrillers set before World War II

Fred Van Lente Why did Fred love this book?

This is cheating a little bit because it’s about a modern-day American boy who gets whisked back to Shakespeare’s time and befriends the playwright as a young man.

Our young actor has to figure out why he’s been sent back to this time and escape before a terrible plague wipes out much of London. I bought this book at the Globe Theatre gift shop (!) on an overseas trip on the basis of Susan Cooper’s name alone.

She wrote The Dark Is Rising Series and this is a thrilling modern classic by her. 

By Susan Cooper,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked King of Shadows as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

I lay very still, with all my senses telling me that I had gone mad. The plague? Nobody's had the plague for centuries . . .

Nathan Field, a talented young actor, arrives at the newly rebuilt Globe Theatre in London to play Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. As rehearsals begin, eerie echoes of the past begin to haunt Nat, and he falls sick with a mysterious sickness.

When he wakes, Nat finds himself in 1599, an actor at the original Globe - and his co-star is none other than the King of Shadows himself: William Shakespeare.

Nat's new…


Book cover of R Is for Rocket

Larry A. Brown Author Of Temporal Gambit

From my list on time travel resulting in alternate realities.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have read SF, starting with the classic Jules Verne, since I was a young teenager. Soon I discovered Bradbury, Asimov, Clarke, Ellison, Zelazny, Dick, all of whom lit up my mind with wondrous and sometimes dangerous visions of possible futures. During the COVID shutdown period, when our university went to online instruction, my wife convinced me to try my hand at writing in my favorite genre. Previously I had written a textbook, How Films Tell Stories (listed here at Shepherd), but never any fiction, so I wrote Temporal Gambit, a time-travel adventure combined with themes of first contact, artificial intelligence, and alternate history. I then followed it with a sequel. I hope you enjoy. 

Larry's book list on time travel resulting in alternate realities

Larry A. Brown Why did Larry love this book?

Bradbury remains my favorite author of all time, and this collection of short stories contains some of his best work, including my favorite time travel tale, “A Sound of Thunder.”

Imagine an avid hunter given the opportunity to stalk the king of prehistoric beasts, the monstrous T-Rex. Then imagine that things don’t go exactly as planned. The world will never be the same.

By Ray Bradbury,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked R Is for Rocket as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14.

What is this book about?

Book by Bradbury, Ray


Book cover of Run, Come See Jerusalem!

Larry A. Brown Author Of Temporal Gambit

From my list on time travel resulting in alternate realities.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have read SF, starting with the classic Jules Verne, since I was a young teenager. Soon I discovered Bradbury, Asimov, Clarke, Ellison, Zelazny, Dick, all of whom lit up my mind with wondrous and sometimes dangerous visions of possible futures. During the COVID shutdown period, when our university went to online instruction, my wife convinced me to try my hand at writing in my favorite genre. Previously I had written a textbook, How Films Tell Stories (listed here at Shepherd), but never any fiction, so I wrote Temporal Gambit, a time-travel adventure combined with themes of first contact, artificial intelligence, and alternate history. I then followed it with a sequel. I hope you enjoy. 

Larry's book list on time travel resulting in alternate realities

Larry A. Brown Why did Larry love this book?

This clever novel takes the old premise, “What would happen if you went into the past and met yourself?” and magnifies it by multiple degrees.

Returning to the time of the great Chicago fire, the hero ends up meeting several past and/or future versions of himself, each time making his situation more complicated. A quick, enjoyable read.

By Richard C. Meredith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Run, Come See Jerusalem! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

1st edition paperback, vg++


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in time travel, HG Wells, and the American Revolution?

10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about time travel, HG Wells, and the American Revolution.

Time Travel Explore 363 books about time travel
HG Wells Explore 36 books about HG Wells
The American Revolution Explore 230 books about the American Revolution