Brilliant, fast-paced, and highly suspenseful, Tenderwire tells the story of a reckless young musician and her obsession with a very old violin.

Eva Tyne leaves her home in Ireland for New York to play in the New Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra. She collapses after her solo debut, checks herself out of the hospital prematurely, and embarks on a chaotic and dangerous odyssey. She falls in love with a mysterious man and becomes obsessed with a rare violin of dubious provenance, for which she must pay in cash. But consumed by obsession, her pursuit of the violin becomes a nightmare of paranoia: Haunted by the ghost of her father, racked with jealousy, and unsure whom she can trust, Eva is pitched into a desperate psychological conundrum as her desires threaten to destroy her.

Narrated in Eva's unforgettable and unreliable voice, Tenderwire is a guessing game and a whodunit that surprises at every turn.

"The slapstick fallout from a violinist's purchase of a rare instrument of dubious origin makes for a taut, confident American debut by Irish writer Kilroy. A 20-something violinist for the fledgling New Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra in New York City, Irishwoman Eva Tyne broke up with her Czech boyfriend, Krysztof, just before suffering a very public asthma attack that lands her in the hospital. Once out, she meets Daniel, a suave young investment banker so enchanted by her that he offers to help front part of the fabulous sum required to buy the questionable 'Magdalena' Stradivarius offered to Eva by a shady Russian dealer in Brooklyn. Knowing the violin is probably stolen, Eva nevertheless takes the $600,000 risk, using up her father's financial legacy (he disappeared one day from their home in Ireland) and selling her own violin. Kilroy injects some delicious suspense as the asthma keeps getting worse, the deadline on the violin offer looms, and Eva begins suspecting her boyfriend is sleeping with her best friend, Valentina, skillfully capturing Eva's complicated tenderness for her art and her lost father, and her tenuous grasp on love. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

A reckless young musician leaves her home in Ireland to play in the New Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra. She collapses after her solo debut, checks herself out of the hospital prematurely, and embarks on a chaotic and dangerous odyssey--the obsessive, paranoid pursuit of a rare violin.

Claire Kilroy's first novel, All Summer, was published to great critical acclaim in the United Kingdom. Tenderwire is her American debut. She lives in Dublin.