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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous, complex and romantic historical mystery, April 17, 2009
This review is from: The Wandering Heart (Paperback)
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.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THIS IS HOW HISTORICAL NOVELS SHOULD BE WRITTEN - WOW!, April 30, 2009
This review is from: The Wandering Heart (Paperback)
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 being said though, I did not just fall off the back of a turnip wagon as to historical facts and can pretty well distinguish a crow from a sparrow at well over 100 yards, so when I say that this work was quite well researched, I feel confident that I am not just talking through my hat. Did the author take some liberty with historical facts? Yes, certainly she did, but she has been very careful to point out the very few times she did via an interview which was published in the back of the book. When I do read a historical novel, I expect and indeed want the author to write a good readable story that holds my interest. If the author has to take a few twists and turns around the cold hard fact, I have no problem with that as long as the author point them out, which as I said, she did in this case. I did in fact do a web search on some of the points the author included in her story and I am happy to report that I did not catch her at anytime in a historical blunder. The times Ms Malloy did dicker with historical facts are few and far between.
For a work that is bound to bring you a lot of reading pleasure and a work that you will find very difficult to put down, I can hardly see how you can go wrong with this one. Not only do you get an absolute top rate story from a gifted teller of tales, you also receive a number of wonderful history lessons written in a style that will not make your eyes roll to the back of your head like your History of Western Civilization text did when you were in school. History through this woman's pen is delicious and yummy! This story has meat to it; very sweet literary meat!
Don Blankenship
The Ozarks
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Semper Memoriam' as the Hattons say! Always remember who you are.", April 27, 2009
This review is from: The Wandering Heart (Paperback)
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!
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