The Second Violinist

A second violin in the dark. A promise broken thirty years ago. A story history forgot to tell.

Vienna, 1828. Niccolò Paganini is the most celebrated violinist in Europe, and the most feared. Half the city believes he sold his soul to the Devil.

Then, at his first Viennese concert, during the caprice they call "the Devil's Laughter," a second violin answers him from the dark. Three notes, played with a small, late hesitation that belonged to only one person: a boy Paganini left behind in a burning conservatory in Genoa thirty years ago, after swearing never to leave without him.

Vienna decides it has heard the Devil. Paganini knows it has heard something worse.

Elena Valli, a meticulous music copyist hired to catalogue the maestro's papers, begins to notice what no one else does: a forged report in her dead father's hand, paper that could not have existed when it was written, a rest placed exactly where it should not be. Following the music from Vienna to Prague, from the ruins of Genoa to the gilded theatres of Paris, she uncovers a carefully staged haunting, a bundle of unread letters, and a musician history chose to forget.

Set in the candlelit concert halls and shadowed streets of Romantic-era Europe, The Second Violinist is a gothic historical mystery about the legend of the "Devil's violinist" and the man who stood behind it. It is a story of guilt and forgiveness, of fame and the people it leaves in the dark, and of the courage it takes to finally play the second part.

Inside this novel:

- A haunting mystery in which the supernatural is never quite explained: ghost, trick, or something in between? - Rich historical detail from 19th-century Vienna, Prague, Genoa and Paris - A fictional story woven around the real life and legend of Niccolò Paganini - A sharp-eyed heroine whose weapon is her knowledge of ink, paper and music - Letters, secrets and a broken promise that echo across thirty years

Perfect for readers who love:

- Atmospheric gothic and literary historical fiction - Slow-burning historical mysteries with morally complex characters - Classical music, the Romantic era and the lives of great composers and performers - Stories about friendship, guilt and redemption

Some music is only heard when someone finally listens...