In ‘Devil’s Trill’ audiobook, Utah author makes murder sing

Gerald Elias is a professional violinist, composer, conductor and mystery novelist. Now the retired Utah Symphony associate concertmaster can add "actor" to his résumé. Elias' playing is integrated in the new audiobook of his debut novel, "Devil's Trill," and the author said he endeavored to give each violinist character a distinct sound.

For example, his protagonist, blind violinist-turned-sleuth Daniel Jacobus, hears one of his rival's students playing a Paganini concerto in a master class at Carnegie Hall. "She plays with dazzling technique for someone her age, but not much idea of what to do musically," Elias said. "I had to practice as if I were a very gifted student but without much insight." Along the same lines, he had Yumi Shinagawa, the student who becomes one of Jacobus' crime-solving sidekicks, play differently as a result of Jacobus' mentorship.

The novel's prologue features a diminutive 17th-century virtuoso known as Il Piccolino, whose unique three-quarter-size Stradivarius proves central to the plot. "He has to improvise something, while undressed in a very cold room, for his lover," Elias said. "At one point I said, 'We don't really have to have Piccolino play something,' then I thought, 'Why not?' " So he wrote a short piece "that could represent late 17th-century music, but sound improvised; somewhat sad, but also beguiling." He tuned down his violin a half-step "to sound like a Baroque fiddle."

Elias said he and his agent were frustrated by years of "noncommittal replies" from producers to whom they pitched their idea of a musical audiobook of "Devil's Trill," which was published in 2009. His public readings always included musical excerpts, and he shared more on his website, but that was an unsatisfying compromise.

Then, at a reading last year near his summer home in West Stockbridge, Mass., the opportunity he'd dreamed of fell into his lap. Alison Larkin, an actor, comedian and audiobook producer, walked into the bookshop and was intrigued by what she heard.

In a phone chat from London, Larkin said she was surprised "Devil's Trill" hadn't been made into an audiobook already. The project was right in line with her mission to "bring something different to something that's been done before," such as adding songs from Regency England to a recording of "Pride and Prejudice" or poems by a teenage Jane Austen to "Persuasion."

Larkin hired Jim Frangione, winner of several Earphones Awards from Audiofile Magazine, to narrate "Devil's Trill." "We had long discussions before he read a word," Elias said. He was delighted to discover that Frangione already knew a thing or two about music and needed hardly any help with the "many weird names and musical terms" in the novel.

"He doesn't want to make it a stage play with different voices, he just modulates his voice very subtly to convey the nuances of personality and character," Elias said. The violinist didn't want to upstage the reader, either. When choosing the excerpts, less was more.

"We have the music played in real time and weave it in in such a way that the listener hears the music that is so integral to the story, without having it interrupt the enjoyment of the book," the author said. "There are times when I start an excerpt for 10 or 20 seconds, then Jim Frangione starts to read again and the music gradually fades into the background. You hear both, but you hear the reader very clearly."

"The music provides clues," Larkin said. "That brings an added dimension of excitement to the work. … We're absolutely delighted to be doing something really new." Larkin said Frangione has signed on to narrate "Danse Macabre," the second book in the Jacobus series. "I like to move very quickly," she said, so she hopes the audiobook will be available by Christmas. If all goes well, she plans to record the entire series, whose sixth installment, "Spring Break," will be published Tuesday.