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Paganini's Ghost

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About this listen

Paganini – showman, womaniser, dazzling virtuoso – is one of the most fascinating characters in the history of classical music. His violin is now kept in Genoa, where it is played once every two years by the winner of an international competition. This year, an unsavoury art dealer is found dead in his hotel room the day after the concert. Clutched in his fist is a scrap of sheet music torn off a page that belongs to the competition winner. But how did the dead man get hold of it? And why? The police ask for violinmaker Castiglione to help them unravel a mystery that has gone unanswered for over a century.

©2009 Paul Adam (P)2012 Isis Publishing Ltd Mystery
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Thanks to the favourable reviews of other listeners I downloaded this interesting and imaginative detective story. I have a rudimentary knowledge of music and know little about the finer points of playing the violin but enjoyed all the musical, technical and historical information that is seamlessly woven into parallel narratives: a modern one of a young virtuoso violinist giving concerts in Italy and another based on Paganini's life.

The main characters are well drawn and the narrative gathers pace to become so gripping that I couldn't stop listening and finished the book very quickly. In the over-populated category of detective fiction the author has created a memorable book.

Sean Barrett has an attractive natural voice that's a pleasure to listen to but is also adept at performing in different accents, ages and genders which he does to perfection in this recording.

An imaginative detective story

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A thoroughly enjoyable and intriguing mystery, read by the wonderful Sean Barret! A young virtuoso violinist has won the select Paganini Prize and with it the chance to play Paganini's special Guarneri violin named" il Cannone", the Cannon, for it's deep, booming sound. Because it has developed a small crack it comes by cavalcade to Gianni Castiglione for repair. On the trail of some missing Paganini artifacts Gianni takes us on an intriguing journey into the world of classical music and violins as he tries to unravel a historical mystery as well as a modern day murder mystery. After all that dark and grisley nordic crime fiction, this was a lovely and very enjoyable light-weight mystery. I will definitely be looking out for more Gianni Castiglione stories. Oh, and get onto itunes and listen alongside to some of the music mentioned in the story, such as Il Palpiti, the Moses Fantasy and others, wonderful!

Thoroughly enjoyable!

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Beautiful and engaging story, gently and intriguing, so much so that I found myself ‘googling’ Panganini’s jewelled violin. The historical content was fascinating and despite not being a classical music lover, I would have loved to have heard the music alongside the narrative. Sean Barrett, as ever, is superb. He lives and breathes the characters.

Delightful...

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This is one of the most unusual modern murder detective stories I've listened to in many years of being an audiobook fan. The story was so interesting I found myself Googling Paganini and his Guarneri violin, "Il Cannone". The cast is full of famous characters and anyone interested in history and classical music will love it, as well as any detective story afficianados.

The main protagonist Gianni, is a violin maker, repairer and amateur sleuth, who with his police friend, Antonio, sets out to solve a mystery and a murder committed in Cremona, Italy, after a shy young prize winning violinist plays "Il Cannone" at a concert in the cathedral,

The narrator is the inestimable Sean Barrett, who is terrific as usual. (He'd even be brilliant reading the phone directory!)

Can't think why there aren't more ratings and reviews for this book. Please try it, you'll love it.

I'm hoping to hear more from Paul Adam, his writing is terrific.

Different but brilliant!

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Strictly speaking this is a detective story. It has all the necessary requisites and details - a dead body, mystery and romance. At the same time it gives added value with the side line of historic information on Paganini, famous violin makers. So, this might not be a book for those who look for constant action and tension as in "normal" crime stories. All in all interesting, and enjoyable. Good performance by narrator.

A musical detective...

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