The Lost Madonna

I really liked this book-- not so much for the story, as for the setting in one of my absolute favorite cities and for the glimpse into the world of art history and restoration.

Professor Suzanne Cunningham hasn't returned to Italy since the flood of 1966. She is thrilled when an old friend offers her the opportunity to teach art history in Florence, and begins preparing for the courses she will teach. Much to her surprise, she finds a reference to a painting she helped restore after the flood, a painting that is now listed as lost in that very same flood. Suzanne will have to travel back into her past memories to a time when her love for art restorer Stefano Leonetti inspired her current love of art itself. Suzanne will have to face her past in order to move on with her future.... THE LOST MADONNA is really two tales in one. First, it is the slow unwinding of what really happened on Suzanne's first journey to Italy as a young nineteen year old. Her experiences as a "mud angel", rescuing art during the flood, are just as important as her affair and love for Stefano at that time. Suzanne has lived a life shadowed by the events of her past and it is only now, as a middle aged woman, that she is venturing back to face what transpired. The second portion of the tale, interwoven with the revelations of past events, is Suzanne's journey back to love. Never has Suzanne loved another since Stefano, but Dr. Roberto Balducci touches something deep inside of Suzanne. Can she learn to love again? THE LOST MADONNA is a compelling although sometimes meandering tale. There were moments when I was frustrated by the story's slow pace and yet Kelly Jones steadily drew me into the storyline so that I had to know how it would all end. Perhaps the most intriguing aspects were the glimpses, both past and present, which the author gave of Italy. The city of Florence is almost a character itself and Kelly Jones brings it to vivid life through her beautiful descriptions. THE LOST MADONNA is a bittersweet tale that will leave the reader with mixed emotions as the story concludes. COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Art history professor Suzanne Cunningham is middle-aged, living in Idaho with her beloved dog. After she is approached by an old friend to teach in Florence, Italy, for a semester, she agrees. She had been traveling in Europe in the 1966, and was in Florence for the disastrous flood, becoming one of the "mud angels" who helped with saving and restoring the many treasures that were damaged. This experience changed her forever, sparking her love of art, and her desire to teach. Art restorer Stefano Leonetti and the painting they worked on together, a Masolino Madonna and Child, were also a big part of her love of art and Florence. As she is preparing for her class, she discovers a notation in a book that the Masolino was destroyed in the flood, which she knows to be false. So she decides to track down this mysterious error and possibly find the painting. Suzanne's love of the painting is also bound up with her love for the older, handsome Stefano--and their painful affair. In tracking down the painting, she meets Dr. Roberto Balducci, the son of the man who wrote the article, and it seems there might be some attraction there as he is kind and charming. Can she respond to this possible relationship? Suzanne has never really trusted anyone after Stefano let her down, and a short marriage later in life also disappointed her. The city is a character in this book, lovingly described. Jones had studied there as a young woman. Her fist book, The Seventh Unicorn, is about an unknown seventh tapestry to go along with the Lady and Unicorn tapestries in the Cluny Museum in Paris. Armchair Interviews says: This author might reminds you a bit of Maeve Binchy, with her exotic location and her achingly real characters.

In 1999 Charley Stover, Dean of an American university in Florence, Italy invites art historian and restorer Suzanne Cunningham to teach a course there. She reluctantly accepts, but also thinks back to November 1966 when she was backpacking in Italy at a time when the Arno River flooded Florence. Suzanne stayed to help with the restoration of invaluable art from the Renaissance while falling in love with her partner on saving masterpieces, Stefano Leonetti; however their tryst ended poorly and she has not returned to the center of her heartbreak until now Preparing for her class, she reads a book that shocks her with the claim that Duccio di Buoninsegna's late thirteenth century masterpiece Madonna and Child was lost during the flood. Suzanne knows otherwise because she personally restored this precious work of art alongside of Stefano after the torrent. Unable to resist she begins a search to trace THE LOST MADONNA starting with looking for the man who still holds her heart. Using the infamous flood of 1966 as a basis for this thriller, Kelly Jones provides her audience with an electrifying tale of suspense filled with twists until a final confrontation. The story line in many ways an amateur sleuth investigative thriller as the heroine seeks her former lover and through him hoping to learn what happened to the painting they restored. THE LOST MADONNA is a one sitting novel as the art is cleverly intertwined into a delightful investigation led by a lead character whose need to know surpasses her fears of what she will learn. Harriet Klausner