The Violin Conspiracy: A Novel (Good Morning America Book Club)
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK! • Ray McMillian is a Black classical musician on the rise—undeterred by the pressure and prejudice of the classical music world—when a shocking theft sends him on a desperate quest to recover his great-great-grandfather’s heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world.
“I loved The Violin Conspiracy for exactly the same reasons I loved The Queen’s Gambit: a surprising, beautifully rendered underdog hero I cared about deeply and a fascinating, cutthroat world I knew nothing about—in this case, classical music.” —Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch
Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.
When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Without it, Ray feels like he's lost a piece of himself. As the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself—and the world—that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him.
“I loved The Violin Conspiracy for exactly the same reasons I loved The Queen’s Gambit: a surprising, beautifully rendered underdog hero I cared about deeply and a fascinating, cutthroat world I knew nothing about—in this case, classical music.” —Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch
Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.
When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Without it, Ray feels like he's lost a piece of himself. As the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself—and the world—that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him.
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Readers say *The Violin Conspiracy* is a compelling, emotionally rich novel that vividly portrays the music world and confronts racism unflinchingly. ...
Eh...That's kind of how I felt about this book. Not a great way to start out a review, but it's the truth. I read this as a suggestion for a book club I tried out (turned out not to be the right group for me) but otherwise it's not something I would have picked up. I enjoy books about musicians, both fiction and nonfiction, however this novel fell flat from the first sentence and didn't really get any better. It almost ridicules a reader's intelligence with how it displayed instrument/musical knowledge and the history of racism.
The plot is just okay for me. A family fiddle turning out to be a priceless instrument is a bit "Antiques Road Show," but that's fine. Every romance novel hovers in HEA, every crime book has a dead body -- the formulaic idea wasn't the issue or even the predictability of the plot that was such a turn off. It was the writing. The prosaism. The lack of nuance and depth and meat of a good story. The book feels stilted and forced. And Ray, the main character, I just didn't like him -- and not for good reasons. A character can be unlikeable for all the rights reasons to enhance a plot, but Ray was just unlikeable in general. He was whiny and needy and just all-around annoying.
His lack of understanding about what he had in the family fiddle was improbable. For someone that is as talented as the author makes Ray, he would have known. I'm not a musician, but I can tell a dud guitar from a priceless guitar, a fiddle from a Stradivarius. So this was a gaping plot hole for me. Sidenote: please don't keep your instruments of any price range in a humid attic -- this will absolutely ruin them. Humidity is death to wood. The list of issues this violin would have suffered in an attic in North Carolina with their summers and swampland...mold, mildew, fungus, warping...the list goes on.
Additionally, the plot jumps around too much to be plausible and the characters are flat (and cliched!). We are back and forth in time and conflict, the Stradivarius getting lost throughout the narrative, which is supposed to be the "cursed hook" from chapter one (not a plot spoiler here). The main character I've already explained above, but the rest of the cast was just as disappointing as stereotypes littered the pages.
Sadly, I'd recommend you skip this one.
★
I rarely give a one-star review, but this one just didn't tick any boxes for me.
#happyreading
The plot is just okay for me. A family fiddle turning out to be a priceless instrument is a bit "Antiques Road Show," but that's fine. Every romance novel hovers in HEA, every crime book has a dead body -- the formulaic idea wasn't the issue or even the predictability of the plot that was such a turn off. It was the writing. The prosaism. The lack of nuance and depth and meat of a good story. The book feels stilted and forced. And Ray, the main character, I just didn't like him -- and not for good reasons. A character can be unlikeable for all the rights reasons to enhance a plot, but Ray was just unlikeable in general. He was whiny and needy and just all-around annoying.
His lack of understanding about what he had in the family fiddle was improbable. For someone that is as talented as the author makes Ray, he would have known. I'm not a musician, but I can tell a dud guitar from a priceless guitar, a fiddle from a Stradivarius. So this was a gaping plot hole for me. Sidenote: please don't keep your instruments of any price range in a humid attic -- this will absolutely ruin them. Humidity is death to wood. The list of issues this violin would have suffered in an attic in North Carolina with their summers and swampland...mold, mildew, fungus, warping...the list goes on.
Additionally, the plot jumps around too much to be plausible and the characters are flat (and cliched!). We are back and forth in time and conflict, the Stradivarius getting lost throughout the narrative, which is supposed to be the "cursed hook" from chapter one (not a plot spoiler here). The main character I've already explained above, but the rest of the cast was just as disappointing as stereotypes littered the pages.
Sadly, I'd recommend you skip this one.
★
I rarely give a one-star review, but this one just didn't tick any boxes for me.
#happyreading
thenextgoodbook.com
What’s it about?
Ray McMillian loves the violin, but as a black boy in North Carolina, he is an oddity. His single mother is not interested in his love of music. She is interested in him getting a paying job, so when his grandma gives him his grandfather’s old fiddle, only Ray and his grandma are excited. When he takes that violin to a high-school competition, a professor will hear him and change his life. But when the violin is suddenly stolen, a whole new mystery begins.
What did it make me think about?
Music- and how racism seems to pervade even that.
Should I read it?
This was a solid mystery with an interesting backstory. My knowledge of classical music is limited, so reading about this world was an intriguing experience for me. When I started the book, my first thought was, “I’ve read this already…”, but it turned out I had read a later book, Symphony of Secrets, by the same author, and recognized the writing style and musical theme. Brendan Slocumb crafts a compelling mystery that offers a glimpse into his life as a Black man in the world of classical music. I think most mystery readers will enjoy this book.
Quote-
“Like many turning points in life- especially in the life of a lonely kid who stuck mostly to himself, playing a beat-up violin that his grandmother had given him- Ray’s life changed because someone else reached out across the gulf and touched him.”
What’s it about?
Ray McMillian loves the violin, but as a black boy in North Carolina, he is an oddity. His single mother is not interested in his love of music. She is interested in him getting a paying job, so when his grandma gives him his grandfather’s old fiddle, only Ray and his grandma are excited. When he takes that violin to a high-school competition, a professor will hear him and change his life. But when the violin is suddenly stolen, a whole new mystery begins.
What did it make me think about?
Music- and how racism seems to pervade even that.
Should I read it?
This was a solid mystery with an interesting backstory. My knowledge of classical music is limited, so reading about this world was an intriguing experience for me. When I started the book, my first thought was, “I’ve read this already…”, but it turned out I had read a later book, Symphony of Secrets, by the same author, and recognized the writing style and musical theme. Brendan Slocumb crafts a compelling mystery that offers a glimpse into his life as a Black man in the world of classical music. I think most mystery readers will enjoy this book.
Quote-
“Like many turning points in life- especially in the life of a lonely kid who stuck mostly to himself, playing a beat-up violin that his grandmother had given him- Ray’s life changed because someone else reached out across the gulf and touched him.”
The Violin Conspiracy is best described as a mystery intertwined with a coming of age story. I thought it was beautifully written and was definitely reminiscent of The Queen’s Gambit as other reviewers have noted. We learn in the author’s afterword that the descriptions of racism that Ray faced as a black violinist in the classical music world were actually based on the author’s real life which makes them all the more poignant.
The book had a great mystery to build onto but it wasn’t well executed. As a black violinist I was very excited to read a story where we see how the culture of classical music and black identity intersect. I find it unrealistic that a violinist can go so long without training but has the abilities of a high class musician by the end of college. It takes more time than 4 years to correct years and years of poor technique. (In my opinion and experience) Even so, black excellence is real so I don’t have a major gripe with it. The writing was not great, many typos, and I feel the metaphors were overdone. Any opportunity in the story someone had to be racist, the author took it, and this made me feel that the racism the author was trying to convey was too obvious. In the world of classical music the racism is much more covert, at least in my experience. It mainly looks like never getting the opportunities the protagonists Professor “pulled strings” to get. I feel the afterword was helpful in conveying that the racist experiences in the book actually did happen, and I feel it helps the story, but while reading it, it felt like the most obvious thing would happen and it did, it’s been done this way already in movies and books, and TV shows. I wish there was a more insightful way to talk about the hidden parts of prejudice in classical music. The plot twist and ending was extremely underdeveloped. The motive of his girlfriend was not strong enough at all and kind of made the story lack luster. What could have been a great plot twist fell extremely flat. I also didn’t find the protagonist like-able.
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