Agent: Jeff Kleinman, Folio Literary Management. Zakiya Dalila Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Black Girl 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. Slocumb sensitively portrays Ray’s resilience in the face of extreme racism. Brendan Slocumb’s debut is an essential lesson in artistry, prejudice, and persistence. 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.

Worse yet, Ray is only weeks away from competing in the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Meanwhile, his grandmother, who supports his musical aspirations, gives him her grandfather’s violin. In Brendan Slocumbs novel The Violin Conspiracy, protagonist Ray McMillians life begins to crumble when his 10 million Stradivarius violin is stolen out of his New York hotel room. 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.

Brendan slocumb the violin conspiracy