Maritime historian Malloy (Devil on the Deep Blue Sea
) makes an impressive fiction debut with this first installment of a planned trilogy. Elizabeth “Lizzie” Manning, a history professor on winter break from St. Patrick's College in Charlestown, Mass., is intrigued when George F.R. Hatton, a British aristocrat, asks for her advice on family artifacts. George's ancestor, Lt. Francis Hatton, collected the pieces when he accompanied Capt. James Cook on his third voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Lizzie soon discovers more than just a treasure trove at George's Somerset estate: there's also a family “curse” of once-a-century suicides of all the Elizabeth Hattons, with Bette, George's mentally ill sister, the only survivor. Through her research, Lizzie learns that she might be a Hatton relation and suffers eerie “flashbacks” and fears that she might be the next victim. Malloy mixes history and fantasy with flair (one of the not-so-doomed Elizabeths had an affair with pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti) and delivers a wonderfully satisfying puzzler. (Apr.)