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The Rainaldi Quartet is the Paul Adam novel that should be on the shelf of every reader who has ever wondered if music-world mysteries can carry serious weight. The quartet of the title are four aging amateur Italian musicians who meet weekly to play chamber music together, and one of them, a luthier, has been quietly investigating a suspicious Stradivarius authentication that turned out to involve a death.
Adam's knowledge of the Italian luthiery world is the engine. The Cremona scenes are technically precise without being showy. The chamber-music sequences are some of the most affectionate musical writing in any genre. The investigation itself is the chassis. The friendship between the four men is the heart.
The closing chapters earn their elegiac weight. Five stars. Recommended even to readers who do not normally seek out classical-music settings.
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