Customer Reviews

Paganini's Ghost: A Mystery

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I like Paul Adam's characters, Gianni and Guastafeste, from his first book. Not your run-of-the-mill mystery protaganists. Lots of interesting information about music, violins, etc. A quick read.

Just like Paul Adam's previous book, the Rainaldi Quartet, this book has a quick pace and is filled with history related to music and violins. Paul also includes amazing details of a luthier's work.

My 12 year old daughter picked this up at the library because she is a violinist. She loved the book and all the history and details about violins. We will be buying our own copy for her to read over and over and giving a copy to her violin teacher as a gift. We are a conservative family and found nothing inappropriate in the story line.

Five stars! Adam's writing is so skillful that the art never displays itself; it is beautiful word-craft that you seldom see in mysteries. Tops Ruth Rendell, in my opinion. The characters grow more interesting with each development. The intricacies of the plot turn and twist and are not resolved until the end. You feel a sense of place: Italy, historical and modern. The story is supported by a deep appreciation of music and musical history that becomes essential to the solution of the mystery. This is a true page-turner that you will not put down until you finish it. Gianni Castiglione, who builds violins and doubles as a sleuth, is one of the most likeable protagonists I've ever encountered in 50 years of mystery reading. I'm going back to get "The Rainaldi Quartet" and look forward to the next book in Mr.Adam's series.

Music is the theme of this delightful novel, a sequel to the author's equally charming debut effort, "The Rainaldi Quartet," which featured the luthier violin-repairer and -maker Giovanni Castiglione. This time, the mystery involves the violinist and composer Paganini, whose virtuosity and audacity provide Mr. Adams with a wealth of material to inform and entertain the reader.

Paganini's violin, the famous "Cannon," is kept in Genoa where it is provided every two years to the winner of a competition to play at a concert. The winner of the current competition, a young Russian virtuoso dominated, of course, by his mother, detects a flaw in the instrument which is brought to Giovanni to inspect and hopefully to repair. This transaction gives Giovanni the opportunity not only to befriend the young artist, providing one theme in this mystery, but to become involved in a couple of murders, the outgrowth of events in Paganini's life.

When a visitor from Paris is found dead in his hotel room with a torn fragment of a musical score, detective Antonio Guastafeste asks his friend Giovanni for help, and the two go on to investigate not one but three murders and the reasons behind them. Along the way we are treated to such detail about violin making, the life of a child prodigy, and the history of Paganini's career and life that we are almost overwhelmed (but joyfully entertained) in this fast-reading mystery. Highly recommended.

Paul Adam's PAGANINI'S GHOST is an excellent follow-up to an excellent book, THE RAINALDI QUARTET. Gianni Castiglione, living in the quiet city of Cremona, is a luthier who is well-known among musicians for his pain-staking work in restoring valuable instruments. He is used to having people appear at his home, carrying their instruments in varied and, sometimes, bizarre ways but he had never seen anything like the line of vehicles approaching his home.

"There were six vehicles in the convoy....At the front was a blue-an-white police patrol car with it's red light flashing....Behind the police car was a shiny dark blue Alfa Romeo with tinted windows, followed by a black armoured van....Fourth in the line was a red Fiat Bravo, then a silver Mercedes....Bringing up the rear was a second marked police car.

"Two men got out of the Alfa Romeo....they looked like the bodyguards you always see accompanying the U.S. president....And I suppose bodyguards they were, only the body they were guarding was made of maple and pine, rather than flesh and blood."

And thus begins PAGANINI'S GHOST. Paganini's violin, "il Cannone", the cannon, is played only once, every two years, by the winner of an international competition. That evening Yevgeny Ivanov is to play to a sold out concert in the cathedral, but Yevgeny is sure that there is something "off" about the tone and desperately needs Gianni's help. The problem is easily fixed and the concert is an enormous success. The Guarneri violin is returned to Genoa and all is well...until the next day when the body of a violin dealer is found, murdered, in his hotel room. In his wallet is a small piece of paper with the opening notes of Paganini's "Moses Fantasy". In addition to the music, the police discover that the victim has left, in the hotel safe, a gold box engraved on the lid with the figure of Moses on Mt.Sinai. And then Yevgeny disappears.

The action moves from Cremona, to Genoa, to Paris, to England, and back again. And along the way, there is Paganini, Napoleon Bonaparte, his sister, Elise, and the rumors of a very small solid gold violin.

PAGANINI'S GHOST reacquaints us with the people we met in the RAINALDI QUARTET. It is a crash course in violins, composers, historical figures, and beautiful things that by their beauty, bring out the worst in human nature.

First Sentence: Over the half a century that I have been working as a violin maker and repairer, I have had instruments brought to me in many different ways.

Luther (violin maker) Gianni Castiglione receives a rare opportunity. He is asked to repair Paganini's famous violin, "The Cannon," for that night's concert by Yevgeny Ivanov, the winner of an international competition. The next day, a Parisian art dealer is found murdered. The only real clue is a corner torn from sheet music belonging to Yevgeny. Also found is a gold box, now missing the 20cm gold and jeweled violin given to Paganini by a sister of Napoleon. Gianni's friend, Det. Antonio Guastafeste, asks his help in solving the murder linked in history to classical music.

There were so many things which made this book stand out for me. The opening chapter is great. Adam is a very introspective writer, which works wonderfully well with his protagonist.

Gianni is 64, widowed, children grown and gone with children of their own. He has a new love, but it is a mature love that allows each of them their own lives and is described in Gianni's description of the universal pattern of our sexual lives. His friendship with Detective Antonio Gustafeste is not only, at times, touching, but also adds some wonderful humor to the story. I love an author who can make me laugh. I also appreciated Gianni's perception of the great churches and his views on faith.

Many authors create a strong sense of place. Adam does that, but he also creates an amazing sense of emotion. Not only does he provide a wonderful description of what sets one instrument apart from others to make it great and valuable, but the way the protagonist feels about being able to touch and play that instrument for just a brief period.

Certainly, it helps to have a love of history, craftsmanship and music to perhaps love this book as much as did I. Adam flawlessly weaves the biographic details of the historic characters and events into the story. Rather than being boring or take you out of the story, it is included in such a natural way as to be fascinating.

The book is also a very well done mystery. It is a matter of following both the physical and historic clues. Although there are coincidences, there are bodies, red herrings and twists along the way. I did not solve the mystery before the end.

This is the second of Adam's violin series and I do hope there are more to come.

PAGANINI'S GHOST (Trad Mys/Ama Sleuth-Gianni Castiglione-Italy/France/England-Cont) - Ex
Adam, Paul - 2nd in series
St. Martin's Press, ©2010, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780312383855

Assistant curator of antiquities for the city of Genoa Enrico Golinelli surrounded by a mob of his sycophants arrives at the workshop of elderly renowned violin maker Giovanni Castiglione. They need the artisan to inspect the legendary treasure, Nicolo Paganini's priceless il Cannone to insure it is in perfect condition for tonight's gala performance. Russian Yevgeny Ivanov won a contest for the right to play the instrument at a recital in the Cremona Cathedral.

Following Ivanov's incredible performance, news arrives that that Parisian art dealer Francois Villeneuve has been murdered. Detective Antonio Guastafe leads the investigation, but asks Castiglione to assist him especially since the fine arts are involved starting with a locked golden box allegedly belonging to Paganini. Castiglione opens the box by using Paganini's music as the key and inside is a letter from Napoleon's sister Elisa Baciocchi as the case spins out of control with an alleged abduction.

The second Castiglione historical whodunit (see The Rainaldi Quartet) is a great nineteenth century tale that uses music as the core of a murder mystery. The investigation is terrific as Guastafe brings in an expert he trusts to interpret the music clues while the key cast is fully developed. Sub-genre fans will enjoy Paul Adam conducting a musical mystery tour of nineteenth century Europe though the eyes of master violin maker Castiglione with over five decades in the art of construction and restoration.

Harriet Klausner

Excellent writing, excellent story, and excellent research made for this book to be referred as "Superb" by Publishers Weekly and I completely agree with the sentiment.

Again, we have our crime fighting duo of friends, Gianni and Guastafeste in their second crime puzzle. Gianni, who is in fact, Dr. Giovanni Battista Castiglione, a violin maker of some repute is fond of his policeman friend, Guastefeste and they used to play quartets with their instruments.

The book opens with Dr. Gianni fixing one of Nicolo Paganini's Guarneri "del Gesu". In fact the violin brought to him is the world's most famous and expensive violin known as "Il Cannone." As a Thank You gift, Gianni is given tickets to the concert where it will be played.

Gianni asks his Ladyfriend, Margherita and Guastafeste, a Homicide Dectective, who also plays in the quartet, to join him. Meeting all sorts of persons at the reception, little do either man realize that they will become involved in solving murders, thefts of golden boxes and violins, and intrigue that surrounded Italy and France in the late 1870's to 1900's.

The history of the times and places that Paganini and others is colorfully expressed in this book and lends credibility to the story within. This was a 'Superb' book!

I've been reading violin mysteries lately. There are some very good ones. I found Paganini's Ghost to be a bit disappointing.

I feel the author fell victim to a risk one takes when writing a novel in the first person. There are many terrific novels written in the first person. Joseph Conrad wrote beautifully in the first person without arrogance. The "I" in a Conrad novel turns out always to be a likeable, sympathetic or interesting character. With all his faults he is someone with whom you want to continue the story's journey.

For a writer of more modest skills it's even more important to have your work meticulously edited. The editing should be performed with some real objectivity because a writer can easily fall into the trap of injecting "himself" - his prejudices, his preaching, his little opinions and pet peeves -- a bit too much, irrelevantly, into the story - creating the character too much in his own self-image, nose in the air, superior to others, always in the right, always the genius, and so on. Maybe the writer thinks others will also be impressed with the genius of his prejudices but he injects those into the story opportunistically rather than artfully, so they are a distraction, immaterial to the story's aim. The reader is left shaking his head, wishing the main character would get out of the story. As I see it, Mr. Adam has, in that sense, put "himself" a little too much into his story.

It reminds me of a documentary series I once saw - a trilogy of films on a certain subject. The first in the series wasn't too offensive but with each successive installment the filmmaker's face began to occupy a larger area of the screen. In the case of Paganini's Ghost, it isn't quite as bad as that film series but with this book the author's self-aggrandizement was the main turn-off for me.

Where the author isn't busy glorifying himself the writing is often wooden. A writer has his limitations - I won't fault Mr. Adam for that. Not every luthier is a Stradivarius and not every writer is a Conrad. It may be that the real fault lies with the editor(s). Some good editing could have improved this book immensely. Here's a typical paragraph from Paganini's Ghost when the main character isn't painting himself better than others:

"We paused while the waiter brought the wine and filled our glasses. Then we looked at the menu and ordered our food. Margherita drank some of her wine."

Unfortunately the book is laden with bland content such as that. In my way of thinking, a good editor would begin to notice that kind of content, as an ordinary reader might also notice it, and ask the author, "What is the reason for this paragraph? What does it serve?

On the positive side, there is some interesting material about Paganini and if you can stomach the main character the story is a good one.

Paganini's Ghost had potential. I feel it just needed a good bit more work before being published.