About the Author

Anne Rice is the author of thirty-seven books, including the Vampire Chronicles, the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, and the Wolf Gift book series. Rice was born in New Orleans in 1941 and grew up there and in Texas. She lived in San Francisco with her husband, the poet and painter, Stan Rice until 1988, when they returned to New Orleans to live with their son, Christopher. In 2006, Rice moved to Rancho Mirage, California. She died in 2021.

Reviews

"Sit back and enjoy. . . . The story flows like blood--the life-giving, life-celebrating kind."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"A PASSIONATE MIXTURE OF EARTHLY FEARS AND SUPERNATURAL TERRORS."
--The Baltimore Sun

"[AN] ABSORBING NOVEL THAT TAKES THE READER ON A SUSPENSEFUL JOURNEY THROUGH TIME, PLACE, AND MIND . . . The instrument of the title belongs to a ghost, the brooding 19th-century aristocrat Stefan, who ventures to 20th-century New Orleans to brew up mischief and seek release from his torment. Told from the point of view of Triana, the humane woman drawn into Stefan's nefarious plot, the tale charts two lives touched by tragedy and alienation. . . . A rich, detailed literary symphony."
--The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"THE TALE OF A DEVILISHLY HAUNTING STRADIVARIUS . . . HER BEST WORK SINCE 1990'S THE WITCHING HOUR."
--The Dallas Morning News

"FULL OF EVOCATIVE IMAGERY . . . THIS IS A BOOK THAT UNDRESSES ITS CHARACTERS LAYER BY LAYER."
--USA Today

Don't look for vampires or witches in Rice's latest, though it is still haunted by malevolent spirits. A young woman who longs to become a great violinist is at first abetted and then dangerously controlled by the ghost of a Russian aristocrat.