cphenly 's review for:

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

1.0

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I was reading this for a book group or I would not have read more than the first two or three chapters. The solution to the "mystery" was painfully obvious right from the very beginning

Spoiler

OBVIOUSLY it had to be the "girlfriend," who was the only person who really had access to the violin such that she could swap it out for the shoe and the note. No way that the young lady from catering just had that ready to go on the off-chance that she could make a switch. Furthermore: when we did finally get to the big surprise solution, the cops suddenly said that the girlfriend had been a major suspect all along, but there had been NO indication of this at any time, and if a violinist with absolutely no crime solving experience can figure it out and find the violin in one day (or maybe it was two), then surely the cops could have done better. Finally: seriously? There are no ramifications for breaking and entering etc.?

The main character was a mass of issues--self-doubt, primarily. Because of his self-image problems, Ray is manipulated by his girlfriend, under the guise of offering him support. These are just not likeable people. Nor are Ray's family, who are just incredibly greedy and mean. Maybe some people can imagine them behaving the way they all did behave in this book, but I found it hard to buy. The other bit I found really hard to swallow was the lawsuits just suddenly disappearing.

Spoiler

He had no proof that the violin was given to his ancestor; he just had a letter stating that he was given it, but that was about third or fourth hand testimony. No court would acknowledge that. The papers that the great grandfather was said to have had never came to light. No way that family would have dropped their lawsuit. I don't believe, either, that having gone so far as to file the lawsuit, his own family would have dropped it. Are we to believe that they accepted the deal he offered of a half a million each? This is a guy who, at the time, did not have his violin, had not won the Russian violin contest, and had not been offered glamours gigs all over the world.

The plotting was pretty sloppy, too. We're told that Ray gives nearly all the money he earns to his greedy family (mother especially), yet he seems to manage to have thousands to travel to college, have his violin repaired, and so on. Madness.