A murder-mystery about the search for a long-lost, priceless violin, The Rainaldi Quartet strikes a highly original chord in the canon of thrillers. Accompanied by two centuries of myth, music and mystery, it provides a fascinating glimpse into a closed world – played at a rhythm that is fast-paced, furious and unforgettable.

Tomaso Rainaldi, an elderly, unassuming violin maker in the quiet Italian city of Cremona is brutally murdered. His friend and fellow-violin maker, Gianni Castiglione, begins to investigate the death, discovering a link to the fabled Messiah violin, Stradivari’s most sublime creation, the Mona Lisa of the music world.

As Gianni probes deeper, he finds himself involved in a sequence of startling events that leads to another murder, a mysterious Englishman and an unscrupulous violin dealer. A train of events that careers across Italy and England as Gianni becomes a player in a game where musical instruments change hands for millions, where forgery is an art form and the preferred method of negotiation is murder…