2009 "First Edition: August 2009"; Minotaur Books publishers, New York; hardbound with denim blue boards and gilt lettering on spine; very good condition, appears unread; dust jacket very good.
 
Description -
Daniel Jacobus is a blind, reclusive, crotchety violin teacher living in self-imposed exile in rural New England.  He spends his time chain-smoking, listening to old LPs, and occasionally taking on new students, whom he berates in the hope that they will flee.
 
Jacobus is drawn back into the world he left behind when he decides to attend the Grimsley Competition at Carnegie Hall.  The young winner of this competition is granted the honor of performing on the Piccolino Stradivarius, a uniquely dazzling three-quarter-size violin that has brought misfortune to all who possessed it over the centuries.  But after the concert, the violin is found missing from its case backstage, and Jacobus is the primary suspect...