The Wandering Heart

Well, I have to admit right up front that I am not a big lover or reader of historical novels. Now I like novels just fine and do indeed spend most of my time reading history, but I have found that the mixture of the two do not often go well; in particular in inept hands. I must also admit that I approached this work with some trepidation. My goodness was I wrong! After reading only the first ten pages I was absolutely hook and spent one semi-sleepless night finishing the thing. I cannot remember when I have enjoyed a book of this particular genre as much as I have this one. As with most of my reviews, I will write very little of the plot as that aspect has been covered so much more adequately by other reviewers here...anyway by those reviewers that actually read the book. In brief though, this is a story of a lady historian who has been hired by an English family to journey to their estate in England and perform a research project having to do with their ancient family papers and artifacts. Our researcher, Lizzie Manning leaves her husband, a very well know artist, at home and makes the journey. As she delves deeper and deeper in to the lives of the Hatton family via never before published or researched family papers, Lizzie makes one remarkable discover after the other. As a matter of fact, her reading and digging, she finally realizes, make herself a central part of this tale that date back to the time of the Crusades, Henry II and the Knight Templers. Folks, this is a page turner, make no mistake. It is not a cheap thrill page turner though as the complexity of the story keeps it on a level that you actually have to do some thinking. I love this! It is also, and I felt this was delightfully sneaky of the author, a commentary on the English Class System and attitudes that exist even to this day. The author, a historian herself who has a Ph.D. from Brown University and teaches Maritime History in Woods Hole, Mass and Museum Studies at Harvard University, is certainly qualified to create a tale such as this. She has written four maritime history books but this is her first adventure into the realm of the Historical Novel. Let us hope it is not the last. Ms Malloy is absolutely a natural and gifted story teller with the ability to take her knowledge of history and blend it into a work that is absolutely captivating. This work is a blend of history, historical investigation, a touch of romance, mystery and to be frank, some sort of scary stuff. The author possesses and had given us a very smooth style, which in this case is a good thing as the story is somewhat complicated at times (I promise you, it all comes together in the end) and it would be difficult, if not impossible to follow were it not written by a very talented writer. Now it must be understood that I am not a professional historian by any means; a enthusiastic armature and reader of history for over 50 years, but certainly not an academic professional. That bein

I once read a comment by a famous author in which he expressed that life was too short to read bad books. Therefore, he was willing to give a book one page to catch his attention! Although I do not agree with the idea of giving a book such a narrow window of opportunity, I can say that even under those strict conditions, Malloy's novel would have made the cut with room to spare. The author catches our attention right away with a powerful scene, involving a young woman jumping from the roof of her house. Once the first step is accomplished, Malloy proceeds to deliver a powerful and intriguing historical mystery. Her skillful writing allows us to get involved in the story right away and it is hard for us to slow down as we follow Lizzie Manning on her quest. This scholar is hired to investigate the past of a shipmate of Captain Cook, Francis Hatton, and in the process she finds some fascinating facts and gets involved in a mystery that hits close to home. I have found in the past that some authors have a tough time finding a balance when writing historical fiction. Some go into too many details on the historical aspect and the fictional plot gets lost in the morass. Others just use superficial facts from the past and end up with just a work of fiction without much to show for in the historical column. Malloy is not even close to falling for this pitfall; she communicates the historical aspects in such a fascinating way and blends them so proficiently in the plot, that the book goes down as easy and as gratifyingly as a good scotch. This novel was a wonderful find, and I could not recommend it more highly!

To history professor Elizabeth Manning, it seems like the opportunity of an academic lifetime: an invitation to catalog a private collection of artifacts housed on an estate in Somerset County, England. The items belonged to Francis Hatton, who gathered them when he accompanied Captain James Cook on his third naval excursion in the 1770s. His descendants have owned them ever since. Since Lizzie is a published expert on maritime history, she's an obvious choice for the task. She leaves Boston and her husband Martin for a planned month of research and documentation in the UK. The contemporary Hattons of Hengemont are an interesting bunch. Sir George is reserved but kind; his son Richard is pompous and condescending; and son Edmund is handsome and personable. But as Lizzie inventories their ancestor's cabinet museum, she uncovers more than just anthropological treasures. She discovers paperwork that reveals a genealogical trend of suicide among centuries of Hatton women; and all of them were named Elizabeth. The information is both intriguing and unsettling, since she shares the name. What is the researcher's responsibility to her patron when such secrets are unearthed? Especially in "a house where deception rests very comfortably?" As a result of her work, Lizzie finds herself spending more time in the past than in the present (as historians are apt to do). She's good at what she does, and that's the problem. That's when the disturbing dreams come. Strange things begin to happen to Lizzie. Is the Hatton family curse affecting her as well? Has she dug too deep? Is it mere coincidence that the name "Hatton" appears on her own, incomplete family tree? Perhaps this visit is not a mere academic assignment after all. Lizzie's threads of research and continuing discoveries keep us turning the pages. In the end, the book is ultimately a study in human nature and the power of love as it surfaces and resurfaces over the course of more than 20 generations in one specific family. Kudos to author Mary Malloy, who tells this story with such detail and conviction that it reads more like a memoir narrative than like fiction. Even if you're unfamiliar with medieval British history; and even if you wouldn't know the Knights Templar from the Knights of Columbus (or "courtly love" from Courtney Love)(!), you will enjoy following Lizzie and her intellectual challenges. The greatest gift Malloy drops on us at the end is the news that this first novel is also the first installment of a planned trilogy. What wonders will Lizzie find next? We can hardly wait to find out. This is a book that deserves wide readership. An interview with Malloy appears as an appendix.

If you are looking for a richly detailed and complex historical novel which will grab your attention and keep it, and have you pondering the central concepts long afterwards, this is it. Lizzie Manning, an American historian specialising in maritime history, is invited by the wealthy and aristocratic Hatton family to review the journal and collections of an ancestor who once sailed with Captain Cook. Thrilled at the opportunity she readily agrees, travelling to England and setting herself up in the ancient family home Hengemont, where she begins to sift through the material which has not been classified for hundreds of years. In the process she uncovers other documents which are unrelated to seafaring, and puts them to one side, but bit by bit an older and more menacing mystery emerges, something which has blighted the lives of the Hatton family since the times of the Crusades and Henry the Third. Lizzie becomes more and more distracted by this older mystery, and in the process learns more about herself than she anticipated. This is such a clever novel. It weaves its magic through the complexities of the story, particularly the apparently unrelated historical events, the romantic ancient setting and the characters both alive and dead. The historical research underpinning the story is meticulous (historical inaccuracy is my pet peeve) and the ending is a poignant and fitting closure to such a wonderful story. I read this book in one sitting, as I kept thinking to myself "just one more chapter" and then before I knew it, it was finished. It will keep you thinking for a long time about life, love and death, but not in a morbid way, and all in all it was a delight which I highly recommend.

This is a great mystery and romance. The intersection of medieval and modern times, history and women make this interesting and suspenseful on many levels. Well research and exceptionally well written. This is a real page turner!