Death Must Come Naturally: The Story of Jakub Havel

Story Description, Book 3: Death Must Come Naturally

The story is set in Dorset, England, from June to December 1985, and Czechoslovakia from 1938 through to 1985.

Excerpt:
＂ ’I never gave up on our country, ’ James looked at Matyás Novotný directly. ’But I did not like what happened to it after the war, and I did not like the Soviets becoming our masters while the people suffered on the streets to feed their bellies.’
’We needed order on the streets, ’ explained Matyás. ’After the Germans were driven out of our country, having ravaged the Churches, farms, and cities, it was only by a collective response that we could return to the prosperity of our former years.’
’And did we prosper?’ argued James. ’Did people’s lives improve? It might have done for some but not for most.’
’If people did as they were told, ’ Matyás responded, ’they were looked after. Given homes and food. All they had to do was obey the rules!’
’As laid down by the Soviet Republic, ’ James continued to speak directly to him. ’And when I saw that the Church, the most powerful organisation outside of the government, would do nothing to help the common man, I took Christ onto the street to do what I could to make life better.’ ＂

Jakub Havel was thirteen years old when, in 1938, his parents sent him from Brno, Czechoslovakia, to escape the war with Nazi Germany. Returning in 1946, he discovered that his parents were missing, presumed dead. He went to work with the Church in Prague but disagreed with the Communist takeover of his country, so, leading a resistance group to support people on the streets, he conducted refugee evacuations to the West. In 1956 he was accused of killing a StB officer, so he fled to England to join an old friend at St Joseph’s in Ashfield.

In 1984, Reverend James St Johns, the Vicar of Ashfield, was recognised by KGB agent Nikolai Volkov as Jakub Havel, a fugitive from the StB in Prague. The information was passed on to the Czechoslovak Secret Service, who devised a plot to bring the case against Havel to a conclusion.

The following year, Lieutenant Commander Stephen Lodge has completed his term as an instructor at HMS Vernon in Portsmouth and marries his fiancée, Jessica Thomson, before being assigned as the First Lieutenant on HMS Newcastle in the Mediterranean. While there, he conducts sea rescues of refugees from North Africa who are crossing the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life in Europe. The Achille Lauro, a cruise liner, is hijacked by the Palestinian Liberation Front but the American Navy does not need the help of HMS Newcastle.

Bad news from home brings Stephen back to Ashfield to investigate the vicar’s death.