"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
From the Paperback edition.
Powerful, shocking, gloriously gothic and intensely autobiographical novel about a 20th century women in New Orleans who is haunted and inspired by a 19th century ghost. (1997-02-06)