Dances with Death: Devil’s Trill and Danse Macabre by Gerald Elias

Read by Jim Frangione, with music by Gerald Elias

Begin with a critically acclaimed mystery series featuring Daniel Jacobus, a blind, curmudgeonly, reclusive violin teacher. Then add music to Jim Frangione’s spot-on narration - and magic ensues.

In "Devil’s Trill", blind, sharp-tongued violinist Daniel Jacobus, living in self-imposed exile in rural New England, is drawn into mysterious crimes in New York City. A stolen Stradivarius - a strangled teacher of child prodigies - Jacobus is not only the chief investigator of these misdeeds, he’s the prime suspect! A police detective hot on his tail, Jacobus roams the bucolic Berkshires, hallowed Carnegie Hall, and tradition-bound Japan, searching for answers only he can see.

In "Danse Macabre", the murder of a beloved violinist and humanitarian brings blind and curmudgeonly violin pedagogue Daniel Jacobus to the stand to testify. Jacobus is dragged into the case kicking and screaming and reluctantly follows a trail of broken violins and broken lives as it leads inexorably to the truth and to his own mortal peril.  

"Slow burn suspense.... Jim Frangione embodies the grizzled music-instructor-turned-gumshoe Jacobus. Violin performances by the author sprinkled throughout provide clues. A solid mystery!” (AudioFile)

Gerald Elias is a former violinist with the Boston Symphony, conductor, composer, and teacher. This mystery series began his now prolific writing career.

Jim Frangione, winner of seven AudioFile Earphones Awards, is a New York City-based actor and co-artistic director of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab, a play-development forum in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He’s performed on TV, in many of the plays and films of David Mamet, on and off-Broadway, and at many theaters across the country.