Moderately amusing history-thriller. Still kind of fun in a fluffy kind of way.

http://www.ravensrange.com/splintered-icon/

Snatched from the pile at the "Unofficial Meetup" in Stockton. Thanks!

From Publishers Weekly: Harry Blake, an antiquarian book dealer specializing in old maps and manuscripts, agrees to help Sir Toby Tebbit translate a 400-year-old journal, written in code, that Sir Toby has inherited from a heretofore unknown relative in Jamaica. The manuscript chronicles the adventures of a young cabin boy, James Ogilvie, who traveled to the Americas as part of a secret mission for the Elizabethan crown. When a mysterious woman approaches Blake about buying the journal, he refuses to sell. Later, Blake returns to the Tebbit household to discover that Sir Toby has been brutally murdered. Teaming up with rival historian Zola Kahn and Sir Toby's daughter, Debbie, the trio soon join a race to determine the meaning behind Ogilvie's encrypted text. A trail reaching as far back as the Crusades leads toward a holy relic that could be worth millions -- or could be the key to a worldwide terrorist plot.
***
Dan Brown has a lot to answer for. Number one on the list being the plethora of "hunt for the holy relic" novels he spawned with the unbelievably popular The DaVinci Code. Not that Splintered Icon is a bad read: it's fun, enjoyable, and somewhat more believable than many of its cousins. And this particular take on the genre gives us a look at a relatively obscure (at least on this side of the pond) expedition to the New World featuring Sir Walter Raleigh, his cohorts, and a suspected Catholic plot against Queen Elizabeth. That alone makes this novel worth slogging through the unsurprising surprises and not-so-twisty twists of a done-to-death storyline. Or maybe I've just read too many of this type of novel. I do have a weakness for them, regardless of their familiarity.

WhiteRaven is right. Fluffy, but fun.