The Authorized Version

A big thank you to Donna for inviting me to be a guest blogger today.  Donna and I both live in Idaho, we both love a good book, and we both love an adventure away from home, especially if it involves research for a new book.

My latest book, LOST AND FOUND IN PRAGUE, is set in the Czech Republic. I’ve visited twice, first as part of an Eastern European trip with my husband that included stops in Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Salzburg, Krakow, and Prague.

At the time, I was a year away from the publication of my first book and I wasn’t specifically looking for a story.  But Prague immediately got under my skin and I sensed there would be a story to tell.  I was struck by the feel of something magic in the air, particularly around the Old Town Square with its colorful astronomical clock and hourly parade of saints,

and the ornate buildings such as the Church of Týn that looks like a fairy tale castle, surely guarded by a medieval dragon.

Walking along the Karlův most (the Charles Bridge), watching a colorful sunset reflected off the Vltava River, was an experience I knew I wanted to capture in words.

This wasn’t my husband’s first trip to Prague. He told me of visiting in the 60s when the Czech Republic was Czechoslovakia and under Communist control. His description of a dark, dank city filled with distrust, contrasted with what I was seeing here in the twenty-first century. I sensed that beneath this spiffed-up, tourist-ready city, secrets lay hidden.

My own earlier awareness of Prague was a distant childhood memory. In each classroom in the Cath

olic School I attended stood a small ornately dressed image of Christ as a child—the Infant of Prague. I knew when we set up our itinerary for the trip we would visit the Infant in the Church of Our Lady Victorious. It turned out to be a surprisingly small church, decorated in over-the-top Baroque gold and marble. The literature we picked up at the church spoke of wars, miracles, and the amazing survival of this small 16^th century icon.   

Several years later, after the publication of my second book and a contract for a third, I set out to work on my Prague story.  I knew the Infant, as well as the history of Communism, would play a role, and I knew I had to go back.  By this second trip I had fleshed out a plot involving a mysterious event in the Church of our Lady Victorious, a politically related murder, and three unlikely collaborators thrown together to solve the mystery—a woman reporter from Boston, an aging Italian priest, and a Czech police detective.  

During our second journey to Prague, we revisited many of the sites included in the book—Our Lady Victorious and the Old Town Square where a murder takes place early in the story.  We ventured up to Letna Park, walked the route student protestors had marched during the Velvet Revolution, and twisted along narrow streets in the Malá Strana.

I hope I’ve caught the magic and mystery of the city in LOST AND FOUND IN PRAGUE, and I hope you’ll come along with me on this journey.

For more information, visit:

www.kellyjonesbooks.com

My review of LOST AND FOUND IN PRAGUE: 

Kelly Jones brings the ancient city of Prague alive for the reader in this captivating novel of political and religious intrigue. Lost and Found in Prague captures the reader with a complex plot and engaging characters as it explores the interrelationships of good and evil, of faith and doubt. 

Kelly Jones grew up in Twin Falls, Idaho.  She attended Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, graduating with a degree in English and an art minor.  She spent her junior year in Italy at the Gonzaga-in-Florence program and developed a love for travel, a passion she now shares with her husband, Jim.  An art history class in Florence fueled a love for the history of art, which has become an integral part of her writing. 

Berkley/ Penguin books include, Lost and Found in Prague (January, 2015), a novel of mystery, murder, and miracles; The Woman Who Heard Color (2011), a story of family loyalty, banned art, and creative freedom; The Lost Madonna (2007), set in Florence, Italy; and The Seventh Unicorn (2005), inspired by The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries in the Cluny Museum in Paris, France. 

Evel Knievel Jumps the Snake River Canyon . . . and Other Stories Close to Home (2014), is Kelly Jones’ first release from Ninth Avenue Press. The title story is set in her hometown of Twin Falls. 

She is a mother and grandmother and is married to former Idaho Attorney General Jim Jones, who now serves on Idaho’s Supreme Court.  They live in Boise.