Reviews with content warning for Violence - Symphony of Secrets

4.5* Even if you didn't like The Violin Conspiracy (which I loved), you might still like this one. It's not technically noir, but has that vibe. While it is about a composer and music academia, it didn't feel as music heavy as the first one. I didn't understand a lot of the musical references in the first book, but I didn't have that problem here. I highly recommend this one (also The Violin Conspiracy if you haven't read it yet).

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sierrajhansen's review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

this book was sooooooooo sloooooowwwwww and for most of my time reading, i just didn't have the urge to pick it up. my dopamine-craving brain had no business reading at this snail pace, but it i guess it was ~enriching~. HOWEVER, when i forced myself to read as much as possible of this book in one sitting, i was able to get past the first two sections of the book (~150 pages) and THEN it started picking up a bit. by the end i was having a pretty good time, but it took me so long to want to read this book that it really docked my opinion of it.

that being said, i did really enjoy the story line and the way that the author switched back and forth between the past and the present. while i wouldn't call this a thriller (and i'm not really sure why anyone would...), i was definitely eager to find out what happened to josephine once we got in the thick of her storyline.

i found the ending to be a little sickeningly sweet.

like, we go from getting tased and humiliated by the cops to coming out on top of these extremely rich white people? and then kurt delaney gets shushed by his younger family members? it felt kind of like when you watch an excessively happy movie at the movie theater and you leave and walk in the parking lot and you kind of want to pump your fist in the air because you're so giddy, but it's also really fucking embarrassing.

it felt unrealistic, which was out of place for a book that felt less thriller and more slice-of-life.

anyways. this was pretty good when everything was said and done, but i can't give this one a higher rating considering that it might have put me in a lowkey book slump and it's unclear if i would have read it as fast as ended up reading it had it not been for a book club and an anniversary gift. i'm super conflicted because the writing was amazing and i felt like i was there and that the characters were real people, but my brain just could not get the mojo to pick this one up without being threatened by a deadline. it's a mixed bag but if you enjoy things that are slow-paced and pretty long then you will like this. i'd read it again if i was old and didn't feel the constant pressure to be doing something more fun and exciting and better with my time.

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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This had a little bit of everything for me, and I loved the ending. I’m always rooting for the underdog, so for me, while the historical events were awful, I loved how Josephine got all that she wanted, even if that wasn’t how she wanted to get it.

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kerrygetsliterary's review

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emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

WOWWW. Slocumb's sophomore novel is just as phenomenal as his first. I absolutely loved Symphony of Secrets just as much as The Violin Conspiracy and Brendan Slocumb is quickly becoming one of my favorite and auto-buy/read authors.

I was intrigued following Bern's plot in the present day, analyzing and authenticating the newly discovered work of Frederic Delaney. Though heavy on the musical composition, it was a fascinating aspect of the story and learning about the particulars of his examination while finding new tidbits of information to discover the truth about Delaney's past hooked me right in.

I thought I was hooked reading Bern's POV, but then we are dropped into the 1920s and get to witness what happened with Fred Delaney and Josephine Reed, and wow! Being thrown into their world and observing Josephine’s talents was so compelling. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, but I also wanted to savor it! I loved Josephine’s character (and the representation of neurodivergence) and not only her brilliant mind, but her strength and resilience.

I also loved Eboni, a tech genius who Bern hired to help analyze and decode Delaney’s work. She was such an intelligent anchor in his life, resolute and steadfast and courageous through all their challenges. Without her, Bern would have faced a slew of even worse consequences and dilemmas.

The pace was perfect, and the story didn’t drag at all. Slocumb expertly blends historical fiction with mystery with a touch of thriller. I was so stressed and anxious for Bern and Eboni at certain points!

Through the mystery of Delaney’s composition and investigation of the past, Symphony of Secrets also explores themes of racism and power that parallel both the past and present timelines. Slocumb displays how racism, power, and privilege are still incredibly prevalent today, and how white supremacy has permeated our society, even in places we think are diverse or progressive.

Absolutely a well-deserved five stars. Highly recommend. And I can definitely see this being optioned for a movie!

CWs: racism, racial slurs, violence, blood, suicide, police brutality, gaslighting, murder, sexism, domestic abuse, emotional abuse

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spuriousdiphthongs's review

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challenging mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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scmiller's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

3.75

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evanmcomer's review

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Slocumb describes “Symphony of Secrets” as a musical thriller. However, the slow pace of the plot and the rushed pay-off at the end made this book just OK for me.

Let’s start with the good. For me, the strongest parts of Slocumb’s book were the chapters set in the 1920s. The author clearly did a lot of research and had a good feel for setting. The characters in that part of the book were richer and more fully drawn. And Josephine, who is neurodivergent, was written with significant care and depth. The book shines brightest when it’s in historical-fiction mode.

As for the bad, this book’s plot felt stagnant. It really only felt like a “thriller” in the last third. The rest seemed like set-up. The portions of the book written in modern times were slow, and Bern and Eboni were both less interesting than Josephine and Fred. Bern’s character arc, where he tries to navigate the internal politics of and comes to terms with the realities of the philanthropic organization for which he works, felt boring. The interesting parts of Eboni’s storyline all seem to happen off page. This meant that, for me, some of the big reveals that happened at the end of the book felt unearned.

As I said above, it wasn’t until about the last third of the novel that “Symphony of Secrets” lurched into the thriller genre. We see Fred’s psychological manipulation of Josephine transform into physical abuse. This all builds to Fred murdering Josephine and another music publisher in the final chapters of the book. That was also a deeply unsatisfactory development tor me. I never had any sense of justice or closure from this part of the story. The nuance that Slocumb used to show how Fred manipulated and gaslit Josephine at the beginning of the book fell by the wayside, and Fred spent the last part of the story being little more than a cartoon villain. Reading the end, it felt like the plot that Slocumb spent so much time setting up became too much for him to handle, so he opted for the most abrupt, shocking ending he could think of.

The Delaney Foundation, which Slocumb paints as a corrupt philanthropy project, was so exaggerated that it took me out of the story. If Kurt Delaney started twisting his mustache at some point in the book, I would not have been surprised. This really boils down to a problem of stakes. The basic conceit of the plot—a musical historian discovers that a famous composer stole his most famous works from a black woman–was strong enough. Giving the philanthropy trying to cover up that discovery the kind of reach that they could buy off the NYPD, pay criminals to hunt down the main character, and manufacture criminal charges against him ratcheted things up to a high enough level that I was no longer able to suspend my disbelief. While things like police corruption and the racism inherent in white philanthropy are real, a book about intellectual property theft doesn’t seem like the proper forum to address them. My brain just could not make sense of the idea that a nonprofit foundation would go to such extremes to protect a piece of classical sheet music—one that it intended to release to the public anyway!

Many of my negative feelings about the ending stem from Slocumb’s treatment of Josephine. While I think Slocumb wrote Josephine well by-and-large, he does give savant-like properties to her neurodivergence, which is a stereotype that is harmful to people living with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other conditions. And to make matters worse, he uses the richness of her character to set up her death. He wanted us to love Josephine and to see her complexities, only so he could make her a victim. Josephine really doesn’t get to tell her own story; she’s there so that Fred, Bern, and Eboni can tell it.

3.25⭐️

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mezzythedragon's review against another edition

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mysterious tense slow-paced

4.0

The lengths rich white people would go to protect “their” legacy, even if it means silencing the main source of their wealth and prestige.

I will say it starts kind of slow, but picks up halfway, especially when Bern runs afoul of the Delaney Foundation.

Overall, another hit from Brendan Slocumb. Do read the author’s note at the end.

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