If you like an adventure tale spiced with romance, history, sunken treasure, world travel, and modern-day pirates, look no further than Stacy Allen‘s debut romantic suspense novel, Expedition Indigo.The book opens with a compelling prologue about a shipwreck in the Mediterranean in 808 A.D. In fact, I was so drawn into the story of 12-year-old Lazio that, at first, I was a little disappointed when the present-day story began.
Soon, though, protagonist Riley Cooper, won me over. Riley is intelligent and highly moral. In addition she has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), a condition rarely (if ever) seen in adventure heroines and which Allen writes about with sensitivity. Riley’s rituals, along with her conflicting desires for safety and adventure provide another layer of depth to the novel. Perhaps because of my background in special ed and a longstanding interest in psychology, Riley’s OCD was one of the most interesting aspects of the book for me. It gave me a glimpse of what it might be like to live with the disorder. And, of course, from a structural perspective, it provides an additional challenge for Riley, who has to manage her compulsions even while fighting for her life–and the life of the man she loves.
Allen is a world traveler whose adventure-lust has taken her across six continents to more than 50 countries. Her website
cites some examples of her exploits:
Preferring the exotic to the mundane, her adventures have included…hot air ballooning in Egypt; hiking Maccu Piccu; Riding in the Sahara atop a camel named Cinderella; diving with manatees; riding horseback in the national forest above Barcelona; hiking up the Parthenon in Athens; climbing the mountain in Delphi, Greece; walking on the great wall of China; hiking to 12,000 feet up to Tiger’s Nest in the Himalayas; cruising up the Nile River; exploring the Galapagos islands; floating in gondolas in Venice; standing on top of the Eiffel Tower; climbing down into the Red Pyramid in Dashur, Egypt; attending cooking school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris; camping in the Serengeti; touring the island of Zanzibar; studying Italian in Castleraimondo, Italy; and crossing the Atlantic on four different ships.
Oh yes, and she holds an Advanced Open Water Diver certificate, with specialties in wreck diving and night diving.
It should come as no surprise that she writes about Italy, archaeology, and scuba diving with the voice of one who’s been there. As someone whose travels outside the U.S. has been limited to two two months in Toronto when I was seven and four weeks with my sister at a Tijuana cancer clinic, I enjoyed the vicarious thrill of exploring the world through Riley’s eyes.
Allen ties up the loose ends neatly enough to satisfy the reader but not so neatly that as to strain credulity. And yes, she does reveal what happened to Lazio. If you like romantic adventures, especially those served with a side of sunken treasure, I highly recommend Expedition Indigo.
Read the book or had a Riley-esque adventure of your own? I’d love to hear about it in the comments. (No spoilers, please.)
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