The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman

Paul Tomm, fresh out of college, finds himself working for a weekly newspaper in a small town in Connecticut. He is assigned the simple task of writing the obituary for a reclusive local college professor who, it turns out, died a mysterious death. An immigrant from Estonia, he has no known relatives. In fact even his identity is in question. The more Tomm searches for the truth the more complicated and dangerous the simple task becomes.

In the spring of 1154, al-Idrisi, wandering librarian of Bagdad and geographer to the court of King Roger the second of Sicily, begins to gather a very special collection of 15 objects. Some are believed to be of great monetary value, some are believed to possess great powers. In the centuries following the creation of the collection, the objects change hands many times throughout the Middle East and Eastern Europe and are often connected to strange or deadly circumstances.

The stories alternate until the dramatic if not too surprising ending. It's a little Umberto Eco, a little daVinci code, a little Russian intrigue and a challenge to keep all the threads working to make a whole cloth.