Surprisingly good?

So, somehow I stumbled across a reference to a book written by a Harvard Extension Museum Studies professor / maritime studies somewhere else, Mary Malloy. I think it was a comment someone posted on a Harvard Magazine article about university novelists or something? Or an article about Extension authors? Anyhow, I figured out that Prof. Malloy had written a historical mystery type book featuring a historian from New England. And, as anyone who read this blog knows (so, hi, C, if you're still out there!), I am a sucker for anything along those lines. So I read it, and, honestly, when the book came from deposit and I saw the sort of garish, sort of generic cover I was like "uh-oh." And then the summary on the back made no sense, academically speaking - she (main character) studies 18th century Pacific explorations, but then the story ends up in the Crusades? She would not know the relevant source material!!!

BUT, then Malloy totally acknowledged that, worked it into the story, and also turned out a pretty legit book. The protagonist tackles a set of unknown papers and materials that literally had me drooling (it's the same as the Pink Carnation books - previously untapped archives are history nerd porn), that leads to an older, generations- & centuries-old family-based mystery (love those too), and THAT ended up with the Crusader stuff. There's also a little bit of romantic/sexual tension, decently well fleshed out secondary characters, and a more contemporary "mystery" that plays out well. Good stuff.

I'm definitely going to try to get my hands on the next book in the series, which I think just came out recently. It's not in Hollis, but the BPL in West Roxbury has a copy, so I'll head over there at some point - maybe stop in at the fire station down the street where a very nice man tried valiantly to cut the stuck-on ring off my swollen finger the other night, before the guys over at the Newton Centre station finally managed to finish the job...

Anyhow, the book is The Wandering Heart.