The Ghost Notes is a Mystery novel that interweaves the history and lore of the Lipinski Stradivarius violin with New Mexico’s Land of Enchantment.
Four disparate people—a violin virtuoso in need of a violin, a violin professor in need of money, a music journalist in need of finding herself, and a detective in need of a win. A Czech virtuoso is offered a loan of a three-hundred-year-old Lipinski Stradivarius violin, But the loan comes with stipulations. The virtuoso must design a case secured with a musical lock based on a series of Tartini Tones and perform an annual concert in Santa Fe concluding with Giuseppe Tartini’s infamous Devil’s Trill Sonata. The virtuoso, desperate for a quality instrument, agrees to address the provisions of the loan. The violin professor on learning of his rival’s acquisition of the Lipinski is overwhelmed with envy. The two men grew up and studied violin in Prague. The professor begins to scheme a way to steal the violin. The music journalist comes to Santa Fe when her estranged mother suffers an accident and attends the virtuoso’s violin concert in hopes of an interview for her magazine. The virtuoso designs the musical lock but after his first performance, he is attacked and his violin is stolen. The music journalist finds him stun gunned in a parking. She befriends the violinist and helps the detective assigned to the case. The detective has little to go on at the crime scene other than a few pieces of evidence, a French cigarette butt with red lipstick and some Taser confetti scattered in the parking lot. Both clues lead down different paths with mixed results.