Centre County Reads 2024 selection puts self-discovery in a musical mystery

Editor’s note: The following is a review of the 2024 Centre County Reads selection, “The Violin Conspiracy.” For more information on Centre County Reads, visit www.centrecountyreads.org.

Are family ties stronger than horsehair? How about ten million dollars? In Brendan Slocumb’s “The Violin Conspiracy,” musician Ray McMillian comes face-to-face with these questions when his prized violin goes missing and his family tree is shaken to the very roots.

Ray’s story is strung together with family ties, coated with a dusting of violin rosin. As a young Black musician growing up in North Carolina, Ray faces pressure from his family to graduate high school and get a well-paying job, but he stays true to his grandmother’s dying wish of “staying the sweet boy that Grandma loves so much.” This means continuing to play his great-great-grandfather’s violin, a rare Stradivarius with (we soon learn) a complicated history. While in college on a music scholarship, Ray learns that the fiddle passed down from his enslaved great-great grandfather is actually a rare 17th-century violin worth roughly $10 million. Pandemonium ensues: Ray’s opportunities in the music industry skyrocket, while his family ties begin to crumble. When Ray’s violin is stolen, replaced in its case with a ransom note and sneaker, his life falls further into disharmony and he must reconsider his family’s difficult past while navigating the mounting problems of the present.

While Ray faces each new challenge with an outer sense of steadfast calm, his internal unease swells. By interrupting the frenzied plot with periods of quiet introspection, Slocumb demonstrates the friction between Ray’s professional success and perceived self-worth. This conflict is apparent during Ray’s debut performance as a soloist, when he recalls his grandmother’s advice to “stand tall” and decides that “no matter what anybody threw at him, he was not going away.”

Throughout his career, Ray is plagued by racist assumptions about his talent and fitness as a violinist. He recalls many performances where he is one of a handful of — if not the only — Black musicians in the orchestra. The message from his industry is clear: Black performers don’t belong in classical music. When his violin is stolen, Ray’s insecurities return in full force. He fears that “(h)e was exactly what they said he was. Incompetent. Irresponsible. It was all true, true, true. He not only wasn’t good enough, but he’d never been good enough.” As the novel unfolds, Ray must learn (and re-learn) that his own self-perception in the face of societal stereotypes is what matters.

While the novel presents itself as a mystery, with its plot driven by the whodunit of the violin theft, the story and its themes are far more complex. The loss of Ray’s violin is paralleled with the fraying of generational ties and family bonds. With the death of Ray’s great-great grandfather, the family’s connection to music is lost; the violin itself is tucked away, forgotten in the attic until Ray comes along. Ray’s family only renews its interest in the violin once they realize its financial value — and try suing him to get it back. At the same time, the family that had formerly enslaved Ray’s great-great grandfather also sues for ownership of the Stradivarius, which had been given as a token of reparations for his enslavement.

Deviating from the traditional structure of a mystery, the climax of the novel is not the recovery of the violin, but rather Ray’s performance in the Tchaikovsky Competition. As Ray prepares for his final performance, he realizes that “he would remember this forever”; as he begins to play, “it was just him and the music now, and the future was endless.” By eschewing the classic framing of the mystery genre, Slocumb allows for a discovery even greater than a multi-million-dollar instrument: the discovery of self-confidence.

Slocumb’s novel is itself paced like a Tchaikovsky composition, filled with leisurely swells that lead to allegro rhythms, then fall back into stillness before building up again. At each turn, Ray faces a new dilemma, whether as a musician, a grandson, or a man. “The Violin Conspiracy” posits that music has the sweeping ability to connect us all — to one another, our pasts, and ourselves.

Upcoming Centre Reads events

“Lost and Found” writing contest: Pieces of 7,500 words or less that center on something lost and the attempt to recover it should be sent to cals@psu.edu by March 11.

“The Art of Growing Up” roundtable: 4-5 p.m. Feb. 28 by Zoom. Registration required.

“The Soloist” film talk: 1 p.m. March 1 at Centre County Library & Historical Museum

Kids Connect hands-on exploration of instruments with Robert M. Sides Family Music Center: 6 p.m. March 7 at Holt Memorial Library

“An Evening with Brendan Slocumb”: 7-8 p.m. March 20 by Zoom. Register online.

Book discussions:

• 5:30-6:30 p.m. Jan. 16 at Schlow Centre Region Library’s Sun Room
• 6:30-7:30 p.m. Feb. 22 at Schlow Centre Region Library’s Sun Room
• 6-7 p.m. March 4 at Holt Memorial Library
• 12:15-1 p.m. March 13 at the Centre Region Active Adult Center in the Nittany Mall
• 3-4 p.m. March 15 at Centre County Library & Historical Museum
• 6-7 p.m. March 28 at the Centre County Library & Historical Museum
• 6-7 p.m. March 28 at the Foxdale Community Building meeting room

Storytimes:

• 10:30 a.m. Feb. 10 at Schlow Centre Region Library
• 10:30 a.m. March 4 at Centre Hall Area Branch Library
• 10:30 a.m. March 6 at Holt Memorial Library
• 10 a.m. March 13 at Centre County Library & Historical Museum
• 11 a.m. March 13 at Centre County Library & Historical Museum