The Devil’s Violin by Art Johnson

​Author Art Johnson introduces us to The Devil’s Violin:
With his diverse background of art evaluation and Desert Storm duty, FBI Special Investigator Chris Clarke is ready for all comers. Only one fugitive haunts his thoughts: the notorious and ruthless assassin known only as “The Man in Black,” whose trail of contract killings had never led law enforcement to anything but a figure lurking in the shadows.
One morning, “The Man in Black” is seen by witnesses in Cremona, Italy, in the area where a young violinist was found dead with his throat cut. Clarke and his partner head off to Europe to track down the assassin while attempting to decode the mystery that lies behind the motive. Meanwhile, veteran sneak-thief Gus Edward Happy has been hired to fly to Europe and steal the most valuable violin in existence – the famed violin coveted by the Jimi Hendrix of the nineteenth century, Niccolo Paganini – thought to be in league with the devil because his genius was unexplainable in earthly terms.
Through a tangled web involving Illuminati, secret documents in the possession of Paganini at his death, a master violin forger and his deceptive daughter, thieves, and assassins, Clarke faces the challenge of his career as he and his partner move across Italy to the South of France where pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place with the Devil’s Violin at center stage.

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Paperback

This is a great book to read and enjoy! Art has written a murder and art heist mystery. With a lot of disparate threads to weave into a tapestry, Art has done a magnificent job! He kept me guessing right until the end when the winner in the race for the most famous violin was revealed. With competing parties, good, bad, and neutral, it was really hard to tell who the winner would be. Clarke and Chubbs, FBI agents, are a great pair and find themselves up to their eyeballs in trouble with this assignment.
Lots of action and dialogue move this adventure along very nicely. The different sub-plots kept the suspense high. You would not know this is his first book, Art handles so many details of the writing craft quite well.
Lots of adventure, great story, and wonderful writing! I found only a few spelling and typographical errors. The Devil’s Violin gets 4.9 stars out of 5!!
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I have already reviewed Art’s second book Deadly Impressions. See the review here http://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/-deadly-impressions-by-art-johnson

​You can buy The Devil’s Violin:
https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Violin-Art-Johnson
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Devils-Violin-Art-Johnson
https://www.goodreads.com/the-devil's-violin
Note: There is a different cover showing on Goodreads.com
 
You can follow Art:
https://twitter.com/artjohnson18 
​Copyright © 2016 Mark L Schultz except for the author's introduction ​