ljm57 's review for:

Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb

4.0

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Historical musical mystery which took me a little while to warm to but then became totally engrossing. In the present day Bern Hendricks is a music professor in NYC who is an avid fan and scholar of Frederic Delaney, America’s most renowned and prolific composer of the early 20thC. Out of the blue, Bern is contacted by the prestigious Fred Delaney Foundation with a proposal to work for them on a seminal piece of Delaney’s music, considered lost for the past century. It’s an opportunity too important to decline, despite all the secrecy surrounding the assignment. Because of the sheer enormity of the task, he enlists his tech-savvy and world-wise friend to assist. Between the two of them they begin to uncover clues about Delaney’s legacy that puts their lives at risk. Alternate chapters take the reader back to the New York music scene of the 1920s where Freddy Delaney is a struggling musician trying hard to catch a break.  That is, until he meets a homeless, coloured woman who hangs out in jazz clubs and bars. Josephine Reed is a terrific character with nothing going for her except her extraordinary musicality. In fact, she’s a musical genius. So a partnership of sorts is formed, forging mutual benefits to both. Immense success ensues. But inevitably, greed and arrogance destroy the relationship, along with the abhorrent racial discrimination and gender inequality of the time.