Violin, released October 15, 1997, is Anne Rice's richly alluring new ghost novel that moves across the centuries to tell the story of three charismatic figures wrapped in music. A return to the romanticism of her first books, wild, passionate, tormented, operatic, Violin moves from nineteenth-century Vienna to modern New Orleans to Rio de Janiero telling the story of three unforgettable people. The first is an exquisite and vulnerable young woman who dreams of becoming a great musician. The second is a brilliantly talented and dangerously seductive violinist--a ghost--who uses his gifts, and his magic violin, to engage and dominate the emotions of his prey. The third who, in essence, is always present, is the spectre of Beethoven. The dramatic interplay of their ambitions, dreams, and desires are the stuff of an operatic tale full of passion and music. Fortissimo in feeling--a novel in the unique Anne Rice grand manner. Anne is flattered by the above, obviously she did not write this. (source)