I was completely hooked by Paul Adam’s first book featuring Gianni Castiglione (The Rainaldi Quartet) and so was keen to read this when I heard about it. If you like classical music – particularly Italian, particularly for the violin – and are interested in the history of violins and how they are made you will find both these books very interesting. The setting is really quite unusual. In this second outing for Signor Castiglione a very fine historical mystery is explored, alongside the obligatory couple of murders. I say ‘couple of murders’ slightly dismissively because I quite see they need to be there, but they don’t come close to Castiglione in the way that the violent death in the first book did and thus the reader is less exercised by them. But I was riveted by the historical mystery. Brava, Signor Adam – bis, per favore. And in the meantime he has a substantial catalogue of novels set in other milieu which I’m looking forward to reading.
Book review: “Paganini’s Ghost” by Paul Adam
Published by Judi Moore
Hi there, I hope you find something to interest you here. In December 2017 I published my fourth book – ‘Wonders will never cease’. It’s a satirical campus novel set in the fictional Ariel University in 1985. If you enjoyed Tom Sharpe’s Porterhouse novels, Willy Russell’s ‘Educating Rita’, David Lodge’s campus novels or Malcolm Bradbury’s ‘The History Man’ back in the day, you may enjoy revisiting the ivory towers of 1980s’ academe thirty years on. See what you think. “It is December, 1985. The year is winding gently towards its close until Fergus Girvan, a Classicist at Ariel University, finds his research has been stolen by the man who is also seeking to steal his daughter. But which man is, actually, the more unscrupulous of the two? And is there hope for either of them?” In the autumn of 2015 I published a volume of short fiction: 'Ice Cold Passion and other stories'. I am also the author of novella 'Little Mouse', a shortish piece of historical fiction which I published in 2014 and, a sequel to it, 'Is death really necessary?', my eco thriller set in the near future and which, confusingly, I published in 2009. All the books are available from all good online bookshops and FeedARead on paper, and as e-books on Kindle. On a semi-regular basis, and about a month after the event, I post here reviews which I do for Big Al & Pals, the premier reviewer of indie books, based in the States. My interests tend to thrillers, SF, magic realism and other quirky stuff. On this blog are also posted the reviews I did for Leighton Buzzard Music Club over some five years up to the end of 2015. LBMC present annual seasons of eight monthly chamber music concerts at the Library Theatre in Leighton Buzzard, Bucks. They select young musicians just beginning to make their name - and the concerts are usually magnificent. I was very proud to be associated with them. I review other music, books, theatre and exhibitions which I've particularly enjoyed. BTW - it says the link to Facebook is broken. I dispute that. Click it and see, why not? View more posts
Judi Moore 