The Violin Conspiracy

I was hoping that this was more of a mystery, but it isn't. It is more of coming of age and dealing with awful people. It starts with a mystery and then moves backward in time to see all the ways that Ray overcame horrible family members and racist people trying to keep him down. I would probably have enjoyed it more if I had known what to expect from the beginning.

I hated so many of the characters in this book, but I was engaged while reading through. Even though the circumstances were consistently frustrating, I needed to know what would happen next. I loved Grandma Nora and I wish I could hear Ray play. I found myself looking up and listening to the pieces he was playing as I was reading along. This is the kind of story that makes me feel like you really can't trust anyone and it didn't help when Ray would make reckless decisions to investigate the missing violin himself. I don't think that any of the people Ray encountered, with like two or three exceptions, deserved respect. I understand that the world as a whole thinks that being “sweet” and respectful to all others is important above all else, but I do not agree. People who are terrible to you do not deserve respect, nor the privilege to engage with you even if they are family. I wish the characterizations went deeper and that there was more nuance in the interactions the main character encountered with both his family and all of the racist people along the way. Every interaction was extreme and didn't help with how shallow all of the characters came across. I feel like I'm begging for nuance in every mystery review though...I liked it overall.

So I picked this up because it promised to be a mystery about a Stradivarius being stolen from a Black musician, and while that's DEFINITELY what this book is about, the mystery of the theft is more like a frame for the story of Ray's growth as a musician; the origins of the Stradivarius; and the many, MANY complications and dangers of being a Black classical musician. So really it's more like a bildungsroman than a mystery overall, but I think that billing it as a mystery makes it more marketable?

Regardless, as a bildungsroman and as a mystery, it's a fantastic read. I enjoy classical music and it hasn't escaped my attention that it's an overwhelmingly white world, so I can only imagine the kinds of hurdles musicians and composers of color, especially Black musicians and composers, face in that world - this on top of the myriad other injustices that come with being a Black person in the US. Slocumb writes about those instances with a sharpness and clarity that comes from personal experience - something which he admits to in the Author's Note at the end of the novel. 

Another thing I appreciated was the family aspect of Ray's life: how Black children don't always get the kind of support they might need or want to pursue less “profitable” career paths. In a way, one can't blame the family for this because of the systemic poverty that haunts many Black families and communities, and makes it so that they have to struggle to survive. The psychological damage this causes is then passed on to their children, in a cycle that can be difficult to break. 

On the other hand, though, Ray's bitterness at the way he's treated by certain members of his family is entirely familiar. This is especially true in the way his family only begins to think he's “doing something” with his life once he hits the “big time” as a musician. It's something many people who've pursued careers in creative fields will recognize, and will relate very hard to.  I know I said earlier that the mystery acts more like a frame for the bildungsroman that forms the actual heart of this novel, but I think they play very well with each other, because the bildungsroman provides you with a list of potential suspects: all the people in Ray's life who could possibly want to get their hands on the Strad, along with their potential motivations for doing so, and their potential methods. Whenever someone new comes into Ray's life, you look at them with some suspicion, even if they seem nice, because they could potentially be responsible for stealing Ray's violin. And I'll admit: I didn't guess who the real culprit was until Ray himself figured it out. It's always fun to try and guess ahead, but I also appreciate it when I don't figure it out until the precise moment the protagonist does. Of course, that only happens when the rest of the novel is also fun to read, which was definitely the case here.

So overall, an enjoyable read with a great look at what happens behind the curtains, so to speak, in the classical music world. It's also a  great look at the kind of prejudice Black classical musicians face in that same world, which they must deal with on top of the prejudice they already face in less rarefied circles.

I do wish, though, that there had been a list of all the musical pieces mentioned in the novel at the end of the book. Slocumb provides a link to a Spotify playlist on his website, but I wish there'd been a list at the end regardless. 

Very well-written and paced. I learned a lot about classical music which I was fairly ignorant about plus the plot settings and situations were unique and interesting and while it got a bit heavy-handed, I did think the underlying theme of the racial prejudice Ray suffered was integral to understanding his story and didn't deter my enjoyment. Highly recommended.