The Case of the Missing Stradivarius

by Emanuel E. Garcia

Donato del Nero arrives in London for a concert which he hopes will establish himself as the greatest virtuoso of the age, he discovers that his priceless instrument - the Medici Stradivarius - has been stolen. Only on the Medici, once the secret treasure of Paganini and rumoured to possess near-magical properties as Stradivarius' masterpiece, has del Nero been able to realise his enormous potential as a peerless genius of the violin. Without it he fears the collapse of his talent. Fortunately Mr Sherlock Holmes, whose own talents have been languishing since the death of archrival Professor Moriarty and who has been contemplating retirement from criminal detection, is pressed into action. His investigation of the theft becomes simultaneously a fascinating inquiry into the secrets of violin-making and the art of musical interpretation and virtuosity. Erudite and witty, The Case of the Missing Stradivarius is sure to delight players and lovers of music, as well as fans of Conan Doyle's immortal detective.

Genres: Mystery

162 pages, Hardcover

First published November 18, 2009

Reviews

[John Purvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Case of the Missing Stradivarius" eBook was published in 2016 (the original paper edition was published in 2009) and was written by Emanuel E Garcia. This is Mr. Garcia's first publication.

I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this novel as ‘G’. The story is set during the heyday of Sherlock Holmes. As you would expect, the primary characters are Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

A noted violinist comes to London to give a performance, but his rare Stradivarius violin is stolen. He and his wife seek out help from Watson and Holmes to recover the rare instrument.

I was disappointed with this novella. I was really expecting more of a mystery with this 133 page Homes tale. The characters of Watson and Holmes were well represented, but I did not think much of the mystery they set about to solve. The cover are is OK, but I would have chosen something with a violin in it since that was the focus of the mystery. I give this novel a 2.7 (rounded up to a 3) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

[Outlander · Rating 1 out of 5]

120 pages that could have been halved, too much devoted to the story of the violin and the violinist - to elevate this short story more needed to be devoted to the solving of the case by Holmes and Watson. On the plus side, what there was of Holmes was reasonable, but I felt Watson was given less gravitas. There are lots of notes with facts on characters mentioned in this story which are instructive. This isn't the cover I have on my copy, mine is a violin with the deep curve used to hold a profile of Holmes.

[Richard Brylczyk · Rating 2 out of 5]

More violin than detective fiction

Not enough of Holmes and Watson. Too much violin. I'm not that interested in violin history. It needs more incidents of Ho!he's genius.

[pdarnold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually, I am reading the eBook format.

Not my favorite story including Sherlock. Not bad, neither is it great and the story is somewhat predictable. Rather wordy almost lecturing about the different musicians... less on the building of character or plot.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

1896 London and Donato del Nero arrives with his Stradivarius to give a concert. Unfortunately it is stolen and Holmes and Watson are brought in to investigate.
Too much about the violin, and not enough of the mystery though that is quite a straightforward one.
A NetGalley Book