Overall score: 4.5/5 starsWaheed Rabbani's novel, "Doctor Margaret's Sea Chest," brings us into several intriguing worlds: the Soviet Union of the 1960s, the wars in the Crimea during the 1850s, and the Sepoy Wars of India during the 1860s.His protagonist, Dr. Walli Khan, is given a sea chest belonging to one Margaret Wallace ... along with the charge to get the belongings to her family. Through a variety of contacts and circumstances, he manages to do so. He also ends up with her diaries about being a physician in the Crimea and India.Rabbani's research into the time periods and cultures is impeccable. I was drawn into Margaret's journals and experiences from the very first moment Walli and his wife start reading the stories and found myself a tiny bit frustrated when the book was over! The tale has a rather open ending, and I want to know what happens next!The ePub edition, which I read, had some editorial problems in the last 20 percent or so, with double words and double letters within words appearing. It was a little distracting, but did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.Lovers of historical fiction will find much to enjoy here.
