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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"It was as close to perfection as Stradivari ever got.", 18 Mar 2006
When Gianni Castiglione, a 63-year-old violin-maker from Cremona, meets the three friends with whom he has played string quartets for fifteen years, he has no way of knowing that within hours one of them, violin-maker Tomaso Rainaldi, will be found stabbed to death in his workshop. Tomaso has been searching for a missing Stradivari, "The Messiah's Sister," supposedly a twin to "Le Messie" ("The Messiah"), the most famous and most valuable violin on earth, now in the Ashmolean Museum in England and worth over ten million dollars. Castiglione tells Antonio Guastafeste, a detective with the Questura, who is another member of Rainaldi's quartet, that if "another perfect, untouched Stradivari," such as "The Messiah's Sister" were to come onto the open market, that it would be "an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime, maybe once in several lifetimes, if ever." As Castiglione and Guastafeste search for Rainaldi's killer by recreating Rainaldi's search for "The Messiah's Sister," they delve into all facets of violin history, craftsmanship, and ownership; the nature of collectors and their motivations; fakes and how they are created; and the importance of documentation and provenance. Investigating several competing collectors, Castiglione and Guastafeste eventually travel to Venice, the moors of rural England, a small town on the Po River, London, and various locations in and around Cremona. The concert debut of Rainaldi's young granddaughter and a London auction of rare violins are full of breathtakingly exciting moments, adding color and insight into the lives of serious violinists and collectors. Though the stories of the various violins are complex, the author's insights into the hidden world of violin collecting keep the reader on tenterhooks. The dramatic tension is enhanced through the character of the narrator, Gianni Castiglione, a man with whom the reader empathizes, and whose interior monologues and musings about Tomaso Rainaldi and his own deceased loved ones make his personal reactions to the unfolding events particularly moving. When this kind and sensitive man confesses to a crime committed when he was young, the reader is all the more shocked by the revelation. Additional deaths, mysterious strangers, a dotty old woman surrounded by cats, a jealous violin teacher, ancient letters, an unusual portrait, a visit to a cemetery at night, and a life or death confrontation inject romantic elements into this challenging mystery and keep the action and excitement at a high pitch. Music lovers will thrill at this unusual mystery with its insights into the society of serious violin collectors, a novel that is carefully plotted and constructed, filled with a high level of unusual detail, and great fun to read. Mary Whipple
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by Paul Adam
by Paul Adam
by Paul Adam
by Paul Adam
by Paul Adam
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