Sometimes I get the feeling I am haunted by Paganini’s ghost. Not long ago I was browsing in a Berlin bookshop and came across Die Violine des Teufels, a murder mystery by Joseph Gelinek. The cover caught my eye because it features a winged incubus playing the violin in silhouette. Originally published in Spanish and translated into German in 2009, the blurb reads as follows:
What does Paganini, the "devil’s violinist," have to do with a murder in Madrid today? The violinist Ane Larrazábal is found strangled at one of her celebrated concerts. In bloody writing the Arabic word for "Satan" is emblazoned on her chest. And her unique Stradivari carved with the Devil's Head is missing – could the instrument really be cursed? The trail leads the police to the macabre death of the master Paganini himself, almost 200 years ago ... oppressive power, intoxicating sound - the new musical thriller by Joseph Gelinek!
Buried amidst the prose is a chart showing where the murder took place in the auditorium and a cryptogram spelling out a clue on staves of music.
Sounds like a rollicking good read!
ReplyDeleteThe beginning is promising. In the opening scene, Ane (a 26-year old former child prodigy) is about to go on stage in Madrid to play La Campanella under the direction of a maestro Claudio Agostini. She has a Japanese rival called Suntori Goto (LOL). "Joseph Gelinek," it turns out, is the pseudonym of a Spanish musicologist moonlighting as a novelist. How's that to make us all feel inadequate? ;)
ReplyDelete... in the first 4 chapters we meet Detective Raul Perdomo (on the trail of a serial killer) and his 13 year-old son Gregorio, an aspiring violinist, who are both in the audience; Andrea Rescaglio, Ane's cellist boyfriend, who has a penchant for dressing like a samurai; and a journalist covering the concert. Paganini's demonic pact is mentioned already on p. 26. Ane hypnotizes the audience with her virtuosity and, receiving an ovation, goes on to play the 24th Caprice. After the intermission, an announcement is made that the concert cannot go on and the police are called to the cloakroom.
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