The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

Alexandra arrives in Sofia Bulgaria leaving behind her broken parents and grieving for her lost brother. She is there to teach English but has a little time to explore her new home. Little did she know that one bag from a family at a hotel getting mixed up with hers would be the start of a dangerous adventure in a country she knows nothing about. With the help from a friendly English speaking taxi driver, Alexandra and Bobby set off to find the family and return the missing package containing ashes in an urn. They set off in and around Sofia stopping to question friends and distant family of the travelers and slowly begin to piece together the story of the man whose remains they carry but they are not alone in this quest and the journey soon becomes very dangerous. Historical fiction set in Eastern Europe is Kostova's forte and she, once again, expertly guides us through the rich landscape that made us fall in love with Eastern Europe in "The Historian".