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A review by cocoonofbooks
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
4.0
This book was good, if not exactly what I expected going in. There is a mystery — who stole Ray's violin? — but the majority of the book is squarely literary fiction, giving us the story of Ray's life and how he ended up with the $10 million violin that is stolen in the opening pages. If the author hadn't started in media res I'm not sure I would have found it as compelling, as it seems like the deck is stacked against Ray from the beginning and his musical career is doomed, between his mother's discouragement and the outright racism he faces along the way. But knowing that he was going to eventually end up famous, it was worth investing the time to see how he got there, painful step by painful step.
The mystery itself was somewhat satisfying in the end, even if Raydisobeyed every order to leave the sleuthing to the professionals. I couldn't believe that there were no consequences for him breaking and entering — that should have made most of the evidence inadmissible as there was no way to prove he wasn't in on the whole thing . I didn't figure out ahead of time who the culprit was, but I did call that Pop-Pop's papers would be in the alligator skin case, though there wasn't a good reason for Grandma Nora not to tell him that except to further the plot . There were a couple of plot points that I felt weren't well explained, like how Ray participated in regionals after his teacher refused to let him try out, or how Ray could offer to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to get his family off his back after we'd just been told he didn't have enough money to pay a $30,000 retainer for a lawyer.
That said, it's an engaging story, very well done on audio. (I enjoyed the violin interludes between parts!) And I'm glad that it's gotten so much attention and is shedding more light on how much discrimination there is in the world of classical music. And just in general — apparently a lot of (white) people were surprised to get to the author's note and learn that the racist incidents Ray endured were true stories form Slocumb's own life. Maybe this book can push people to think a little differently.
The mystery itself was somewhat satisfying in the end, even if Ray
That said, it's an engaging story, very well done on audio. (I enjoyed the violin interludes between parts!) And I'm glad that it's gotten so much attention and is shedding more light on how much discrimination there is in the world of classical music. And just in general — apparently a lot of (white) people were surprised to get to the author's note and learn that the racist incidents Ray endured were true stories form Slocumb's own life. Maybe this book can push people to think a little differently.