Devil's Trill (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery)

From concert violinist Gerald Elias comes this debut set in the classical music world about the theft of a priceless violin.
Daniel Jacobus is a blind, reclusive, crotchety violin teacher living in self-imposed exile in rural New England. He spends his time chain-smoking, listening to old LPs, and occasionally taking on new students, whom he berates in the hope that they will flee.
 Jacobus is drawn back into the world he left behind when he decides to attend The Grimsley Competition at Carnegie Hall. The young winner of this competition is granted the honor of playing the Piccolino Stradivarius, a uniquely dazzling three-quarter-size violin that has brought misfortune to all who possessed it over the centuries. But the violin is stolen before the winner of the competition has a chance to play it, and Jacobus is the primary suspect. 
 With the help of his friend and former musical partner, Nathaniel Williams, his new student,Yumi Shinagawa, and several quirky sidekicks, Jacobus sets out to prove his innocence and find the stolen Piccolino Strad. Will he be successful? The quest takes him through the halls of wealth and culture, across continents to Japan, and leads him to a…murder. 
 Devil’s Trill gives the reader a peek into the world of classical music, with its backstabbing teachers and performers, venal patrons, and shady violin dealers. It is the remarkable beginning of a wonderful new series.

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Elias, Gerald

Mystery

Minotaur Books

Daniel Jacobus, reclusive blind concert master and amateur sleuth, returns to solve a most despicable crime and to clear an innocent man Just after his Carnegie Hall swansong and before his imminent departure for retirement in France, beloved violinist and humanitarian Rene Allard is brutally murdered with a mysterious weapon. His young African American rival, crossover artist BTower, is spotted at the scene of the crime hovering over the contorted body of Allard with blood on his hands. In short order the aloof and arrogant BTower is convicted and sentenced to death, in part the result of the testimony of blind and curmudgeonly violin pedagogue Daniel Jacobus, like millions of others, an ardent admirer of Allard. Justice has been served…or has it? Jacobus is dragged back into the case kicking and screaming, and reluctantly follows a trail of broken violins and broken lives as it leads inexorably to the truth, and to his own mortal peril.

Danse Macabre: A Daniel Jacobus Mystery

Literature & Fiction

Classics

Just after his Carnegie Hall swansong and before his imminent departure for retirement in France, beloved violinist and humanitarian Rene Allard is brutally murdered with a mysterious weapon. His young African American rival, crossover artist BTower, is spotted at the scene of the crime hovering over the contorted body of Allard with blood on his hands. In short order the aloof and arrogant BTower is convicted and sentenced to death, in part the result of the testimony of blind and curmudgeonly violin pedagogue Daniel Jacobus, like millions of others, an ardent admirer of Allard. Justice has been done...or has it? Jacobus is dragged back into the case kicking and screaming, and reluctantly follows a trail of broken violins and broken lives as it leads inexorably to the truth, and to his own mortal peril.

Daniel Jacobus lives in self-imposed exile in rural New England. He spends his time chain smoking and berating students in the hope that they will flee. Jacobus, however, is drawn back into the world he left behind when he decides to attend the Grimsley Competition at Carnegie Hall. The winner of this competition is granted the honor of playing the ‘Piccolino Stradivarius,' a uniquely dazzling violin that has brought misfortune to all who possessed it over the centuries. Nine–year–old Kamryn Vander wins the competition, but before she can get an opportunity to play the priceless violin, it is stolen. Jacobus becomes the primary suspect and with the help of his friend and former musical partner Nathaniel Williams, and his new student, Yumi Shinagawa, sets out to prove his innocence.

As the New Magini String Quartet prepares for a performance of Schubert's masterpiece, "Death and the Maiden," which it hopes will resuscitate its faltering career, someone starts picking off members of the string quartet a la Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Dogged by internal dissension and by a potentially devastating lawsuit from its fired second violinist, the famed New Magini String Quartet is on the brink of professional and personal collapse. The quartet pins its hopes on a multi-media Carnegie Hall performance of Franz Schubert's masterpiece, "Death and the Maiden," to resurrect its faltering fortunes. But as the fateful downbeat approaches, a la Agatha Christie, one by one the quartet's musicians mysteriously vanish, including second violinist, Yumi Shinagawa, former student of renowned blind pedagogue and amateur sleuth, Daniel Jacobus.It is left up to the begrudging Jacobus, with his old friend, Nathaniel Williams, and a new member of the detective team, Trotsky the bulldog, to unravel the deadly puzzle. As usual, it ends up more than Jacobus bargained for.

Death and the Maiden: A Daniel Jacobus Mystery

The fourth book in the series featuring the irascible but loveable amateur sleuth Daniel Jacobus
Vaclav Herza, the last of a dying breed of great but tyrannical conductors, has been music director of Harmonium for forty years. The world famous touring orchestra was created for him when he fled Czechoslovakia for America during the political turmoil in Eastern Europe in 1956. It is the eve of the opening of a dramatic new concert hall designed by Herza himself. It is also the eleventh hour of intense contract negotiations with the musicians that have strained relations within the organization. When the acting concertmaster, Scheherazade O'Brien, is summarily dismissed by the despotic Herza for the permanent concertmaster position, an audition she was poised to win, O'Brien slits her wrists and the orchestra becomes convulsed. Now, blind, cantankerous violin teacher Daniel Jacobus, who had shunned O'Brien's earlier plea for help against Herza's relentless harassment, investigates Herza's dark past not only in Prague, but in Tokyo and New York. With the help of his old friends Nathaniel Williams, Max Furukawa, and Martin Lilburn, he seeks not only revenge but redemption from the guilt of his own past.

Death and Transfiguration: A Daniel Jacobus Novel (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery)

The latest Daniel Jacobus mystery holds a mirror to the glittery façade of the concert world, delving into the multimillion-dollar sleight-of-hand of violin dealing . . . When an anxious phone call from obscure violinmaker Amadeo Borlotti disturbs Daniel Jacobus’s Christmas Eve festivities, he and his dear friends Nathaniel and Yumi make light of it. A seemingly humble practitioner of his craft, Borlotti preferred the quiet life in the country away from the limelight. He even found love at an advanced age. But his larceny, which began as a typographical error in a bill for a violin repair, grew incessantly. In the end he became a helpless captive of his past indiscretions and was consumed by it, and it is up to Jacobus and his team to find out how, and why.

Playing with Fire (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery, 5)

United States

Severn House

When reclusive, blind violin pedagogue Daniel Jacobus is invited to speak at a seemingly innocuous symposium on Baroque music at a prestigious music conservatory, he has no idea he is about to become enmeshed in an entrenched culture of sexual harassment and its cover-up at the highest levels. And when a renowned faculty member dies of apparent natural causes, only the curious behaviour of a violin student at Jacobus’s master class is an indication to him that something may be terribly amiss.

Spring Break (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery, 6)

When reclusive, blind violin pedagogue Daniel Jacobus is invited to speak at a seemingly innocuous symposium on Baroque music at a prestigious music conservatory, he has no idea he is about to become enmeshed in an entrenched culture of sexual harassment and its cover-up at the highest levels.  And when a renowned faculty member dies of apparent natural causes, only the curious behaviour of a violin student at Jacobus’s master class is an indication to him that something may be terribly amiss.

The latest Daniel Jacobus mystery holds a mirror to the glittery façade of the concert world, delving into the multimillion-dollar sleight-of-hand of violin dealing . . . When an anxious phone call from obscure violinmaker Amadeo Borlotti disturbs Daniel Jacobus’s Christmas Eve festivities, he and his dear friends Nathaniel and Yumi make light of it. A seemingly humble practitioner of his craft, Borlotti preferred the quiet life in the country away from the limelight. He even found love at an advanced age. But his larceny, which began as a typographical error in a bill for a violin repair, grew incessantly. In the end he became a helpless captive of his past indiscretions and was consumed by it, and it is up to Jacobus and his team to find out how, and why.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Elias, Gerald. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Elias, Gerald

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Elias, Gerald. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Devil's Trill (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery)

Danse Macabre: A Daniel Jacobus Mystery

Danse Macabre: A Daniel Jacobus Mystery

Devil's Trill (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery)

Death and the Maiden: A Daniel Jacobus Mystery

Death and Transfiguration: A Daniel Jacobus Novel (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery)

Playing with Fire (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery, 5)

Spring Break (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery, 6)

Spring Break (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery, 6)

Playing with Fire (A Daniel Jacobus Mystery, 5)