Lost and Found in Prague

In this intriguing thriller from Jones (The Woman Who Heard Color), Boston reporter Dana Pierson travels to Prague, which she visited 20 years earlier at the height of the Velvet Revolution, to visit her cousin Caroline, who has taken the veil. On the leg of her flight that leaves Rome, Diana’s seatmate, Fr. Giovanni Borelli, turns out to be familiar with her work probing scandals in the Catholic Church—having served the Vatican as a devil’s advocate arguing against the canonization of saints. Their arrival in Prague coincides with a police investigation into the execution murder of Sen. Jarsolav Zajic, shot early one morning outside the old town hall. Zajic led a commission to identify those who had spied for the secret police under the Communists. Meanwhile, an elderly nun in Caroline’s convent has died under mysterious circumstances. The ending doesn’t match the fascinating opening sections, but Jones has a real gift for creating well-limned characters and describing the streets and buildings of Prague. (Jan.)