THE VIOLIN MAN

A first novel (for publisher as well as author) begins with a promising scenario: In the 1880's, a fictional Italian boy helps the real Luigi Tarisio find a lost Stradivarius. When the itinerant Luigi (whose vocation is discovering these missing treasures) arrives in the village, he's quickly befriended by young Antonio—who introduces Luigi to various neighbors and helps him figure out who might have the instrument, the marvelous tone of which still lingers in a local tale. Unfortunately, the textbook style here combines with stock characters who are prone to remarks like, ``I'm a poor widow...I have nothing but a sad heart.'' There are few details to lend a sense of place or of village life: Antonio's father complains about his daydreaming on page one, but we never discover what he might have been doing instead. ``Midday isn't the time to visit someone''—but why not? The language is clichÇd and sometimes careless: what color is ``tarnished gold''? This harmless mystery does introduce some historical facts; but it's oversimplistic, and Hooper fails to realize its unusual setting. (Fiction. 8-12)