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Stafford County author's new book is a mystery set in pre-prison camp Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Date published: 3/19/2007

BY LUCIA ANDERSON

Kim Jones hadn't been at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay more than a few hours before she thought, "There's a book here."

Six years later, the Stafford County author is marketing "The Ghosts of Guantanamo Bay" in bookstores around the region and online at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

"Guantanamo" is a mystery story, set in 1997, before the base became a prison camp for suspected terrorists. The protagonists are a young Marine helicopter pilot and his wife, who stumble onto a murderous puzzle that dates back to the start of the Castro regime.

Oddly enough, Kim Jones' husband, Caleb, was a Marine helicopter pilot during his tour at Guantanamo.

"A writer writes what the writer knows," Kim Jones said with a laugh. "He was my technical adviser."

Readers ask her if she's Audrey, the outspoken wife.

"I'm more like Adam," the pilot who is disinclined to make waves, she said. "I would have thought [some of the things Audrey did], but not said it."

Although the history and the geography in the novel are factual, the plot and characters are wholly the product of her imagination, she said.

"I wanted to create characters who were larger than life so you'd remember them."

One thing that matches reality is the atmosphere on base, Jones said.

"You have so much time to think and not that much to do. An innocuous comment could turn into such an event."

With such a small pool of people with whom to make friends, lines of command got fuzzy, she said.

Many of the problems Adam and Audrey experience in their marriage, in his career and with their neighbors can be laid directly to this inward-turned society.

"You arrive in Gitmo one person, and leave another. That's true," she said.

The mystery, which involves a plan by Cuban casino owners to stash their money where Castro can't get to it, was sparked by her grandfather's tales of gambling trips to pre-Castro Havana, Jones said.

She had wanted to be a writer ever since she was a teenager growing up on Long Island.

"I tried to write earlier in my life. I'd only get a few pages done. I realized I didn't have enough life experience to really know what to say."

Date published: 3/19/2007