Devil's Trill (Daniel Jacobus Series #1)

Excellent read!

Thoroughly enjoyed the novel musical setting, characters and plot.

Fascinating musical detective

The Devil's Trill introduces a fascinating new detective to the literary scene at the musical hand of author Gerald Elias. Blind violinist Daniel Jacobus ekes out a bitter existence criticizing students and chain-smoking cigarettes. His few remaining friends scarcely see him and meet only scorn when they do. But The Grimsley Competition at Carnegie Hall draws Jacobus' curiosity as well as his ire, and his plot to end its dominance over young violinists ends in disaster when the precious "Piccolino" Stradivarius is stolen.

There's a history behind Jacobus, once on the brink of a brilliant future, that's told in quiet "program-notes" style in the Prologue. There's a mystery behind the Piccolino too, played musically in the oddly resonant Introduction, and drawn from later like a curious refrain. The story moves to Exposition, music and musicians taking the stage, suspects, bystanders, detectives and entourage; to Development, where themes come together and the truth that music is more than perfect notes reflects itself in less than perfect people; to Recapitulation, where thickened plots swirl back to reveal their secrets; and to Coda with the final truth of it all.

A reader could learn to love classical music here, or jazz if they prefer; to appreciate the difference between perfection and beauty; and to mourn the way performance gets in the way of developing skills when unformed children are forced to compete for praise. The reader might learn to love old Jacobus too, a blind man who sees while the sighted are merely distracted, somewhat reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes-who also played violin. The Devil's Trill introduces readers to the world of competitive music, to performance and concert lore, and to well-plotted, richly-played-out mystery. The author's second book, Danse Macabre ,should be a thrilling sequel and I'll be looking out for it.

Disclosure: A visiting friend left a copy of this book behind for me to read and I really enjoyed it.

A must Read!

I loved this book. The story flowed easily and the characters were interesting. A terrific look into the music world. I can't wait to read more by this author.

Disappointing

A very disappointing read. Sophomoric writing and worse than rudimentary inclusion of the classical music world into a basic mystery. Wordy writing that had me skipping pages to get to some action. An editor worth his 2 cents would have pared this down to a short story. A waste of time to read.

The anti-hero hero

"Paul Adam's PAGANINI'S GHOST, a wonderful book, is a mystery concerning a Guarnieri violin played every two years by a contest winner. THE DEVIL'S TRILL is a mystery concerning the disappearance of a Stradivarius violin played every thirteen years by a concert winner. Beyond this the books are completely different. Paul Adam peoples his story with warm, likeable characters, devoted to music for the sake of music. Gerald Elias peoples his story with dark, greedy, nasty characters, the chief of whom is Daniel Jacobus, the "hero" of the story.

Jacobus was a child prodigy, a losing contestant in the Grimsley Competition, the winner of which gets to play the only 3/4 size Stradivarius known to have been made. It is considered perfect in form and in sound. Jacobus is a man dogged by a dark cloud; he wins the coveted role of concertmaster with the Boston Symphony Orchestra but loses it with the sudden onset of blindness. Angry, misanthropic, brilliant, and possessed of a vile temper, Jacobus does his best to infuriate and insult everyone with whom he comes in contact. He withdraws to a house in the Berkshires where he earns his living by teaching the violin to students who are nearly as good as he was and he spends every moment trying to get them to hate him so much they quit.

THE DEVIL'S TRILL is set in 1983. Jacobus is drawn to the Carnegie Hall concert of the newest winner and, in his own style wearing a flannel shirt that is worn and none too clean, "Jake" mixes with the classical aristocracy, dressed to annoy. The one thing he hates more than the Grimsley Competition is the child-centered Musical Arts Program Group which sucks the life and the talent out of the children they agree to represent in the artificial and demeaning world of perfomance art. Jake is not shy about making his opinions known and when the Piccolino Stradivarius is stolen in the middle of the reception, Jake becomes the prime suspect.

Jake, his newest student, Yumi Shinagawa, and his one, true friend, Nathanial Williams begin an investigation to find the violin and clear Jake's name. The search takes them to Japan and to the Grimsley Competition of 1931 and to a satisfying conclusion that reveals the soul-destroying depths of failure.

Some people who read THE DEVIL'S TRILL were put off by the character of Daniel Jacobus to the point that they did not like the book. Jacobus is unpleasant, has questionable hygiene, and isn't above using his lack of vision to get what he wants. Jacobus is why the book is so good. He hates the manipulation of the child prodigies who make money for record labels, concert venues, and managers and who often lose the gift that brought them so much attention because they are rushed to perform in a manner that their bodies are not yet able to manage. He hates the Piccolino Stradivarius because it is the competition to play the "perfect" instrument that pushes the children, and their parents, into the Grimsley Competition. Jacobus was one of those children and none who competed or won went on the fulfill the promise of their musical genius. A nice-guy hero couldn't be nearly so ruthless.

I hope that Gerald Elias brings Daniel Jacobus back for further investigations. Jacobus grows on the reader slowly but steadily.

Love mysteries....

Stradivarius violins, musical prodigies, they are fascinating.

good read

Very interesting characters. I really enjoyed the splatters of Japanese culture and of course the classical violin culture.
If you read this book just for the 'mystery' aspect, you will likely be disappointed, because it is the trip and not the destination that is worth-while here.

not just another Bb mystery

As a non violinist colleague in the symphonic world, I can highly recommend Jerry's tale. His dry wit and deep passions rise to the surface in this clever and highly enjoyable read. As an "insider", I found myself chuckling on every other page as the personalities grew more and more familiar, though never entirely predictable. A great creation with wonderfully eccentric characters and a twisting plot containing many unexpected key changes.

This is a super amateur sleuth tale with a musical twist

Every thirteen years the Grimsley Competition is held for prodigies under thirteen years of age at Carnegie Hall. The winner receives money, appearances with the New York Symphonic and use of the renowned seventeenth century Piccolino valued at $8 million for a Carnegie Hall performance.

Blind Daniel Jacobus was once a losing participant, but since feels strongly that the competition and similar music venues destroy the gifted young. Child prodigy Kamryn Vander is this year's winner, but to the shock of the members if the Music Arts Project responsible for the gala, someone stole the revered Piccolino, the only known three-quarter-size Stradivarius. The police blame Daniel, who was at the scene of the crime when the locked door was opened and found empty and has voiced a loud motive to end the competition by breaking the violin. Encouraged by insurance investigator friend Nathanial, grumpy Daniel accompanied by his current student Yumi, whose green eyes are his vision, searches for the missing Piccolino. Murder has the almost maestro and his protégé fleeing to Japan before they become the second act of the killer.

This is a super amateur sleuth tale with a musical twist as Daniel with the help of Yumi tries to track down the missing Piccolino. Fans will enjoy the blind teacher turned detective as the almost famous but now infamous Daniel understands the irony of his predicament; he wanted to end the competition that he feels harms children yet now must find the instrument that is the prize of the contest if he is to prove his innocence. Fans will enjoy his profound cantankerous view of the state of classical music in this engaging mystery.

Harriet Klausner

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No text was provided for this review.