{"id":3373,"date":"2019-11-06T14:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T22:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3373"},"modified":"2019-11-06T14:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T22:24:00","slug":"gerald-elias-an-eclectic-anthology-of-28-short-mysteries-to-chill-the-warmest-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/gerald-elias-an-eclectic-anthology-of-28-short-mysteries-to-chill-the-warmest-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerald Elias: an eclectic anthology of 28 short mysteries to chill the warmest heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of my favorite book events of all time was one for Gerald Elias\u2019 first Danial Jacobus mystery, Devil\u2019s Trill<\/em> (2009).\u00a0 Elias, himself a violinist (at the time associate concertmaster for the Utah Symphony), brought what he referred to as his \u201cfiddle\u201d to the event, and gifted the audience with a short performance.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never forgotten it.<\/p>\n

I was also a fan of the books, based on the odd-ish premise that a blind violinist could be a detective, his remaining senses sharpened by the lack of his eyesight, heightening his deductive reasoning abilities. \u00a0This is actually pretty classic Sherlock Holmes territory, the \u201cWatson\u201d being Daniel\u2019s former musical partner and friend Nathaniel.\u00a0 The mysteries, while utterly traditional, also gave the reader a bird\u2019s eye view of the music world.\u00a0 Jacobus lives in seclusion in the New England countryside but is drawn out to the city for different reasons.<\/p>\n

This short story collection features several Daniel Jacobus stories, but there are other stories, often set in the New England countryside, but Elias\u2019 thoughts are far ranging and sometimes downright odd.\u00a0 However, many of the stories in this collection are very strong.<\/p>\n

Short stories are a tricky dance, as setting, character and a strong plot arc must be established in such a concise frame.\u00a0 The ending often makes or breaks the story, and Elias provides the reader with some real surprises.<\/p>\n

The first story, Sleeping Beauty, <\/em>remains set in the professional world of the arts, with the main character a musician and the villain a ballerina.\u00a0 Elias is extremely deft at portraying this milieu, and this story is especially successful as it has a good premise with a resolution that is completely unexpected, and is also tied to the cultural background of the characters.<\/p>\n

My favorite story of the whole book is one of the Daniel Jacobus entries, In Bocca Al Lupo<\/em> (though a close second is Fool Me Once\u2026)<\/em>.\u00a0 Both of these stories capitalize on Elias\u2019 real life expertise, and in In Bocca Al Lupo, <\/em>the crime involves a stolen Stradivarius.\u00a0 Jacobus is asked by his friend Nathaniel, now an insurance investigator, to help him crack the case and save his company a many millions of dollars payout to the victim.\u00a0 Using his musical senses as well as his deductive reasoning, Jacobus does indeed crack the case, and I also learned a factoid about violins I did not know \u2013 but you\u2019ll have to read the story for yourself to find out what it is.\u00a0 It relates to the title.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gerald Elias<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of the other stories are all over the map, taking the reader to a couple New England graveyards, following a troubling text exchange, and accompanying a desperate man to Costa Rica as he attempts to make a new life for himself.\u00a0 Many of these stories have a Night Gallery <\/em>flair to them, in that they get into your head and won\u2019t let go.\u00a0 I\u2019m still, many decades later, recovering from a certain Nigh Gallery<\/em> episode, so I know what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n

I would beg the gifted Mr. Elias to give his next collection, if there is one, a better title, as this title sounds like a description and is not memorable, and a cover that perhaps has a musical instrument on it.\u00a0 Overall however this is a fun journey through the mind of a gifted writer.\u00a0 I was especially happy to once again meet up with Daniel Jacobus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite book events of all time was one for Gerald Elias\u2019 first Danial Jacobus mystery, Devil\u2019s Trill (2009).\u00a0 Elias, himself a violinist (at the time associate concertmaster for the Utah Symphony), brought what he referred to as his \u201cfiddle\u201d to the event, and gifted the audience with a short performance.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[257,258,85,259],"class_list":["post-3373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-gerald-elias","tag-music","tag-short-stories","tag-violins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3376,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373\/revisions\/3376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}