In the early morning hours after St. Patrick's Day, 1990, two men disguised as policemen gain access to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a stately four-story Italian mansion in the Fenway district of Boston. They handcuff the guards, wrap their mouths with duct tape, and proceed to commit the largest robbery in history. The stolen masterpieces, including Vermeer's The Concert, a Degas, a Manet, and three irreplaceable Rembrandts, are valued at half a billion dollars. Despite a $10 million reward, and the combined efforts of the FBI, Scotland Yard, INTERPOL, and the Canadian Mounted...

The book that's got classical music lovers raving

Melody Cavatina, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's new and amazingly talented cellist, is scheduled to premiere a finger-cracking solo in Rio in conjunction of the signing of a controversial trade agreement. It's her first ever solo, and she's traumatized, barely able to play normally let alone in front of a hall of world leaders. As the orchestra heads to the airport, their priceless instruments are hijacked.

The earthy police Lieutenant Lowell is called to find the truckload of instruments. Most people suspect a populist...