Fictional texts have the power to shape our understanding of history. Rather than merely reinforcing or complementing historical knowledge from textbooks and other sources, they generate a unique kind of historical awareness through aesthetic representation. This role carries significant responsibility—offering the potential to engage broad audiences while also posing risks of misinformation and oversimplification. This book explores how various authors and their works navigate these challenges. The central question is: To what extent does a text invite the reader’s active participation in evaluating the historical knowledge it presents? Put differently, how critically aware and self-reflexive is the text in its transmission of historical information? The book argues that historical fiction exhibits a spectrum of self-reflexivity, and the following chapters are structured according to the degree to which each text engages in this critical awareness. This framework of self-reflexivity serves as a valuable analytical tool for examining historical crime fiction.