the violin conspiracy by brendan slocumb

***READ THIS ONE AND THEN 'SYMPHONY OF SECRETS' COMING IN APRIL*** With the odds stacked against him and the pressure mounting, will Ray ever see his beloved violin again? But now his family and the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray's great-grandfather are each claiming that the violin belongs to them. Then with the international Tchaikovsky Competition-the Olympics of classical music-fast approaching, his prized family heirloom is stolen. And when he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather's fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can't afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world.

Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. (Feb.A mystery about a Black classical musician whose family heirloom violin is stolen on the eve of the most prestigious classical music competition in the world. Agent: Jeff Kleinman, Folio Literary Management. Slocumb sensitively portrays Ray’s resilience in the face of extreme racism. The tension builds as the competition looms, and Ray struggles to shake off doubts, not get caught in false leads, and focus on finding the missing violin. Legal battles over the violin’s ownership ensue.

This revelation leads members of the Marks clan, whose ancestors enslaved Ray’s ancestors, to claim the violin belongs to them.

At college, where he receives a full scholarship, Ray endures prejudice from fellow students, and a luthier repairing the heirloom discovers it’s a Stradivarius. Meanwhile, his grandmother, who supports his musical aspirations, gives him her grandfather’s violin. Flashback to Ray’s high school years in Charlotte, N.C., where he must deal with pervasive racism-and his mother nagging him to drop out and get a job. When the police, the FBI, and the insurance company’s investigator hit dead ends, the case comes to a standstill. Black violinist Ray McMillian, the hero of Slocumb’s gripping debut, receives a $5 million ransom demand for his Stradivarius violin after the instrument is stolen from his New York City hotel room a few weeks before he’s due to perform in the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition.

The violin conspiracy by brendan slocumb