Knife Edge

Sleeper

Viola Some time ago I was googling Violin Maker and Nottingham (Do the same and you may work out why!) and I was surprised to see, on the second page, a reference to a book called The Rainaldi Quartet by Paul Adam who lives in Sheffield. Those of you well up on Sheffield Orchestras (in particular the Hallam Sinfonia) may have come across a Paul Adam. Just a coincidence, or is there more to it?

The plot revolves around a violin maker called Tomaso Rainaldi who is found murdered at the end of the first chapter and the investigation into finding his killer. Searching on the internet only told me that The Rainaldi Quartet is the American title and that over here the book is known as Sleeper. I looked in vain for a photo of the author to satisfy my curiosity as to whether there were two people with the same name. Eventually, by looking elsewhere, I was able to find out. The next time I saw Paul, I asked him if he'd come across a musician called Tomaso Rainaldi. He replied that he had, but unfortunately Rainaldi was no longer with us.

I'm not going to name the killer(s) here, but to comment on the book and (with any luck) encourage you to go out and buy your own copy.

A brief outline

Viola There is a group of friends who live near to Cremona. Whenever possible, they meet and indulge their passion for playing string quartets. The first violin is Tomaso Rainaldi, a luthier and violin dealer married to Clara. Second Violin is Gianni, the narrator of the story, a widower and fellow violin maker. A local priest, Arrighi plays viola and the quartet is rounded off by Guastafeste, a policeman.

There is some mild humour in their choosing which music to play; and the mood is further lightened by the description of a plum brandy.

After their evening's playing Guastafeste and Gianni are left.. Clara phones wondering where her husband is. They look for him at his workshop in the Corso Garibaldi in Cremona.

"a ghastly touch of premonition on my neck that made me shiver."

In Chapter 2 they visit the workshop the following day. Here the atmosphere is well captured:

"a length of maple in a vice waiting to be sawn, some rough cut violin backs and bellies, a rib assembly clamped together while the glue dried.."

There is mention of a valuable unplayed Stradivarius dating from 1713. This is the violin known as "Le Messie" - the Messiah which now is stored in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Its value is around 10 million US Dollars.

Gianni's job of violin maker and restorer takes him to Milan, to a shop located

"a rhinestone's throw from the Cathedral".
Here he sees a Strad in need of repair, one with
"orange red varnish with a glow like a liquid sunset".
Back in his workshop he opens it up and finds a two piece maple back, with ribs, linings and blocks as Stradivarius had left them. The neck, fingerboard and bass bar have all been changed.

Guastafeste and Gianni visit a collector in Venice. This is not the Venice of the tourist trail; instead it is the reeking Venice which has the

"tang of the sea mixed with undertones of fetid water"
. The foul smell is everywhere, the reek of decaying vegetable matter mixed with the stench of sewage and diesel fumes. The collector Forlani had amassed a fine collection of violins from famous makers including Amati, Guadagnini, Maggini and Guarneri - this last one from the maker whose violins were preferred by Spohr, Paganini and Heifetz. There is mention of the Guarneri del Gesu which was owned by Louis Spohr before he lost it in the early 1800s. ( I don't know if this is a true story). Viola

One aspect of the book is the attention to detail evident in the violin making described by Paul. It suggests painstaking research written by someone who has actually built a violin.

Postscript

ViolaThere is a curious postscript to my encounter with the book.
There is a lady who comes in from time to time and on her last visit a couple of months back, I happened to recommend the book to her. Time passed and I forgot about recommending it to her, but when she came in this week she told me she'd followed my advice and had read the book.
She had enjoyed reading it and said so. What she didn't know, was that looking at the rack behind her was Paul Adam! She was somewhat surprised to meet him, but told him she'd be reading his other works.

New Book: Knife Edge

I hear that Paul has a new book published by Endeavour Publishing. The ISBN13 is 9780955727702
Set in East Anglia, it is called "Knife Edge" and described as:

... a gripping thriller focusing on the power of the supermarkets and the exploitation of migrant labour. In London, a newly-arrived Kurdish immigrant is brutally murdered by Turkish people-traffickers. The dead man's wife, Irena, the key witness to the killing, flees to East Anglia where she disappears into the murky world of gangmasters and illegal foreign workers. Then three people contract typhoid and the only link between them seems to be the supermarket chain where they bought their food. Joe Verdi, crime correspondent for a national newspaper, goes undercover as a migrant worker to try to find Irena. But he's not the only one looking for her - the Turks are also on her trail.
Meanwhile, Joe's colleague, Ellie Mason, is following up the typhoid outbreak. As the two reporters' investigations come together in a heart-stopping climax, the shocking truth about our industrialised system of food production is uncovered.
There is a price to pay for cheap food - and sometimes that price is people's lives.

The book is now out and available at Blackwell, Broomhill.

See the Star article here
.