The Prague Cousin

Natalie Dvorak #21:

More than twenty years have passed since Natalie Dvorak’s cousin Lada escaped the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. But Lada returned to Prague a few months later only to disappear, leaving her American relatives to fear the worst. Now, as Czechoslovakia moves towards democracy, Natalie is a detective in the Vermont State Police. Lada has reached out across time and space to her cousins and makes her return to the United States for a long-delayed reunion. Lada reports a long prison term under the former communist regime the charge of espionage. At the same time, Natalie’s older brother Henry, a university professor, is hosting a woman who has also come from Prague and has a speaking engagement on campus. Natalie begins to wonder if Lada’s return might be more than an emotional visit with the American cousins. Is Lada really the person she claims to be? What about the guest speaker and yet another Czech refugee, Henry’s colleague on the university faculty? When the three of them converge, will Natalie and her family witness something dangerous?