Paganini's Ghost
A Mystery
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4.4 • 7 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Paganini – showman, womanizer, dazzling virtuoso – is one of the most charismatic characters in the history of classical music. His violin, il Cannone (the Cannon), is now kept in Genoa, Italy, where it is played only once every two years in a sold-out concert by the winner of an international competition.
This year, though, a Parisian art dealer is found dead in his hotel room the day after the concert. In his wallet is a scrap of sheet music, torn from a page that belongs to the competition's winner. But how did the dead man get hold of it? And why?
Detective Antonio Guastafeste asks violin maker Gianni Castiglione to help him navigate the curious world of classical musicians, their priceless instruments, and the unsavory dealers who prey upon them. Together, Antonio and Gianni must unravel another mystery that has gone unanswered for over a century, one that may hold the answer to the modern-day murder.
Filled with remarkable history and musical lore, Paganini's Ghost plays at a breathtaking tempo that will keep you reading until the very last page.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of British author Adam's superb second mystery to feature Gianni Castiglione (after 2006's The Rainaldi Quartet), the accomplished luthier has the honor and privilege of repairing an Italian national treasure, Nicolo Paganini's priceless il Cannone ("the Cannon"), in time for a rising young Russian, Yevgeny Ivanov, to play it at a recital that same evening in the Cremona cathedral. After Ivanov's triumphant performance, events takes a sinister turn with the puzzling murder of a well-connected art dealer and the even more perplexing find of a rare and valuable Paganini artifact. Though Castiglione is by no means a detective, his knowledge and musical expertise prove indispensable to his policeman friend, Antonio Guastafeste, as they travel around Europe in search of the killer (or killers). Readers will find Adam's full-bodied characters captivating but never transparent as the clever plot, enriched by meticulously detailed historical intrigues, builds to its satisfying conclusion.
