Addendum

From Salon.com's well written book review, this captures some of the ideas (and praise) that I direct towards Kostova's "The Historian." The entire review is worth a read if you have the time.

Salon.com Books | "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova: "The Historian' isn't especially scary (though Kostova can work up a respectable miasma of dread when needed), and it lacks the inane but breathless chase scenes of 'The Da Vinci Code,' but for the sophisticated reader it's a fine Bordeaux to Dan Brown's overcaffeinated Diet Coke. Essentially a languorous gothic travelogue, the novel whisks its readers to a series of off-the-package-tour European locales (Ljubljana, anyone?) during the 1930s, '50s and '70s, when the Carpathian Mountains -- Dracula's home turf -- seemed as wild and remote as the Andes."