A Denver Associate Professor is assigned a young female graduate student whom he has previously never met. She is brilliant, extremely wealthy, yet appears emotionally unstable. During the following weeks, the professor unravels a plot of intrigue, finding his student using her vast wealth for purposes of political revenge. Under commitment to his university, and pressured by the girl's own father, he agrees to act as guardian, and accompanies his student to Europe. Once there, however, both are placed at risk due to knowledge surfacing about a large manuscript, one with tentacles reaching back to the Second World War. Within four months Dr. Westbrook will witness large sums of money changing hands, imprisonment, right-wing terrorists with automatic weapons, and several people dying in a foreign land. Book Synopsis: The girl stares straight ahead into the eastern sky. They leave Germany, crossing into the Bohemian Forest, moving relentlessly toward the ancient, bloody city of Prague. She will enter the city like a thief in the night, leaving her professor friend alone with a target on his back. The professor is Dr. Robert Westbrook, who was driving a silver Mercedes. The girl is Everly Somerset who is carefully plotting revenge against the people who destroyed her family. Later in Prague, they will separate with scarcely a word of goodbye, right after he orders her to hide the manuscript. While at that moment Westbrook is aware of a large manuscript, soon he will remember very little about anything. Full of drugs, he is held prisoner in a large home of some kind by right-wing criminals, desperately attempting to locate the manuscript. They are convinced Westbrook has written the volume, a work they believe has dangerous implications for the modern Czech Republic. Being held captive in causes Westbrook to recall aspects of the 1930s and 40s. Although the Second World War was fought decades before he was born, he continues to wonder if there could possibly be some strange connection between where he is right now and that distant past. Five days pass. During this time, Westbrook has attempted to escape twice without success. His billfold and passport have been stolen, yet no one in this home has questioned him about anything. No one has mentioned his name. This changes on the morning of day six. He had been lying on his bed of his prison home, contemplating the seriousness of his situation, when his thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a stranger, standing silently in his doorway. The man is rather handsome, tall, athletic looking, perhaps 40 years old, with white hair and blue eyes. He comes directly to Westbrook's bed offers his hand, and introduces himself as Michael Novotny. Westbrook refuses to take his hand. Novotny shrugs and sits down on a chair nearby. He is holding a clipboard, and has placed a couple of books on a small table underneath a painted-over window. "It's impairative that we talk," Novotny says sternly. "It will have to be now. Are you planning some kind of action against my small country, Dr. Westbrook? By the way, we found you hotel room early this morning. We broke into you room safe. The manuscript was not there!" Novotny has become agitated. "Where is your manuscript Dr. Westbrook?" After a long interogation it becomes obvious that Novotny has two goals: locating the manuscript and probing Westbrook's knowledge of the Second World War. Still, the officer appears to be an honest individual who may eventually free him from this prison home. Still, Westbrook is not safe. During the next 24 hours, he is attacked, wounded, and hospialized. The Czech rightists were by then convinced the large manuscript is actually a historical account of thousands of atrocities committed by citizens of three cultures during the Second World War and its aftermath. They want the work destroyed! Historical figures included in the book include Benes, Heydrich, Hitler, Tilly, & Wallenstein.
About the Author: Dr. James Paulding has taught more than 30 years at the university level in Illinois and Missouri, as well as directing a band for the United States Seventh Army in Europe. "The Prague Manuscript" is his seventh published book. He and his wife, Helga, have also created three documentary films, the last being "Brothers in the Storm." They alternate between living in the Denver area and central Europe, including Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.