by Brendan Slocumb, 2022
This novel is the ‘Fort Collins Reads’ book for 2023, and our first Old Town Library Book Club book for 2023-2024.
It’s a page-turner, a mystery of who took the $10 million Stradivarius from Ray MacMillian, a young black violin prodigy.
Ray, born to a single mom, grew up in North Carolina. His Mom wants him to get a job at Popeye’s chicken so he can help pay the bills. All she does is talk on the phone and watch TV. Ray is in love with the violin. He is in band at school and uses a school violin. When he is in high school, his grandma, sweetest, most loving grandma in the world, gifts him her grandpa’s violin. He was a slave child and would play the fiddle to calm his master. The master gifted the violin to him when he freed all the slaves.
Well, once the violin is cleaned up and repaired by a non-racist repairman, it is discovered that it is a Stradivarius worth about $10 million. The family of Ray (except Grandma, who has passed) and the Marks’s, the descendants of the original owners, all hound Ray demanding that the violin is rightfully theirs. He has to practice for the Tchaikovsky Competition amidst all the turmoil this priceless violin has caused. He has a beautiful, loving girlfriend named Nicole, and a mentor, his violin teacher in college, Janice, who are devoted to him.
Spoiler alert:
The violin ends up having been taken by beautiful, loving Nicole and her scumbag boyfriend. She had flown back from New York to Erie the day the violin was stolen. But she let slip months later that she had driven back to Erie that day. When she said this, Ray puts two and two together and actually finds the violin himself.
There are some occurrences which show how hard it is to be a black man in America, especially in the South. The first time he gets to play in a quartet for a wedding, the uncle of the bride will not let him in the house, and he almost misses the start. Then, afterwards, the uncle bars him from entering the house for the reception, where they were invited to eat afterwards. He has to sit on the curb outside waiting for the others to come take him home. Then, when he first takes the violin, not knowing it is priceless, to a repair shop, the young man behind the counter is racist, so cruel and mean, and over-charges him for shoddy work. Then, in Baton Rouge, on the way to a concert, he makes a left turn and gets pulled over by a cop and man-handled and thrown in jail.
The author, Brendan Slocumb, is a black classical violinist, teacher, professor, performer.
This was a good book with an excellent story. I had problems with the ‘f’ word in various spots. I also wondered at the very beginning why Nicole and Ray still had the ransom note in hand after the police and FBI investigate. I didn’t get that. It was painful to read the parts where he experiences evil racism. Also, his Mom was a very disagreeable, unlikable person. But the story is unique (unfortunately, a black man playing classical violin is highly unusual) and the mystery was engrossing.