Book excerpt: "The Lost Stradivarius" by John Meade Falkner is a short novel of ghosts and the evil that can be invested in an object. In this case, a Stradivarius violin is the haunted item in question. After finding the violin of the title in a hidden compartment in his college room, a wealthy young heir, becomes increasingly secretive as well as obsessed by a particular piece of music which summons the ghost of its previous owner.