The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

When young American Alexandra Boyd arrives in Bulgaria to teach, she is hoping the change of scenery will quiet some of her own demons.  Instead a confusion about hotels, an encounter with a very handsome man and his family and a mix-up in luggage lead to a very different adventure.  When she discovers that the bag left behind contains human ashes, she becomes determined to find the owners and return the bag.  Fortunately she finds an English speaking taxi driver she calls Bobby who is willing to take her to the one place she heard mentioned by the family.  But Bobby is not just a taxi driver and the family is not just any family and the people who seem determined to keep Alexandra and Bobby from delivering the mysterious bag and not ordinary bad guys.  And so the search begins across much of the area around the ancient cities of Sofia and Plovdiv.  I am not sure I could have correctly pointed to Bulgaria on a map before reading this book but Kostova's descriptions make me want to explore its ancient cities and beautiful countryside the same way that I wanted to discover all the hidden libraries and secret places in The Historian.  Sign me up for both tours.