Spring Break

By Gerald Elias

When reclusive, blind violin pedagogue Daniel Jacobus is invited to speak at a seemingly innocuous symposium on Baroque music at a prestigious music conservatory, he has no idea he is about to become enmeshed in an entrenched culture of sexual harassment and its cover-up at the highest levels.

And when a renowned faculty member dies of apparent natural causes, only the curious behaviour of a violin student at Jacobus’s master class is an indication to him that something may be terribly amiss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Severn House Digital
• Release date: Aug 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781780108841

Gerald Elias

Gerald Elias leads a double life as a critically acclaimed author and world-class musician. His award-winning Daniel Jacobus mystery series, beginning with Devil's Trill, takes place in the dark corners of the classical music world. He has also penned two standalone novels, The Beethoven Sequence, a chilling political thriller, and Roundtree Days, a Jefferson Dance Western mystery. Elias's prize-winning essay, "War & Peace. And Music," excerpted from his insightful musical memoir, Symphonies & Scorpions, was the subject of his 2019 TEDx presentation. His essays and short stories have appeared in prestigious journals ranging from The Strad to Coolest American Stories 2023. A former violinist with the Boston Symphony and associate concertmaster of the Utah Symphony, Elias has performed on five continents and since 2004 he has been the conductor of Salt Lake City's popular Vivaldi by Candlelight chamber orchestra series. In 2022, he released the first complete recording of the Opus 1 sonatas of the Baroque virtuoso-composer, Pietro Castrucci, on Centaur Records. Elias divides his time between the shores of Puget Sound in Seattle and his cottage in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts, spending much time outdoors and maintaining a vibrant concert career while continuing to expand his literary horizons. He particularly enjoys coffee, cooking, watching sports, and winter weather.