The Prize Racket

by Isabel Rogers

With a huge reward on the line, the Stockwell Park Orchestra will need to play on a whole new scale to win big...

After a brief and disastrous Resident Poet episode, Stockwell Park Orchestra is invited to take part in a TV competition for classical music. For a £50,000 prize some competitors are tempted to stretch the genre to ‘crossover’ and beyond.

Can a full concert orchestra compete with jazz bands, horn quartets, harp ensembles, and Mrs Ford-Hughes singing in Portuguese with nine cellos? Or will the competition be derailed by the poet’s return, this time sporting live Ambient Sounds? The TV producers aren’t worried: they know a good fight means great ratings.

What was supposed to be a quirky diversion threatens to take over the orchestra’s rehearsals for their own concert, but discovering a voting scam means they must fix things in the TV studio first.

304 pages, Paperback

Published January 20, 2022

Reviews

[Sharon J · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Prize Racket by Isabel Rogers is a delightfully light and amusing story. I haven’t read any of the Stockwell Park Orchestra series before and after reading The Prize Racket I will certainly be looking to read more.
The musical setting is absolutely wonderful! Being a musician and having played in orchestras and bands it was unbelievable to read the intricacies of music being portrayed in this story. The characters were all incredible and so realistic. However, a small warning, if you aren’t musically inclined you might struggle with the musical descriptions of the playing of the musical pieces.
Highly recommended read if your are into music!

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher Farrago Books for a copy to read and review.

[Cinta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the only people who would enjoy this book would be people who know about music and orchestras and about all the lingo that is associated to this world. I love classical music, but I just don't find entertaining to read chapter after chapter with all the details of how a rehearsal of a certain musical piece develops.

Also, over 300 pages of nothing? I was expecting some sort of mystery or something more interesting. But for what I got, I think something on the range of 200 pages would have been more than enough.

I really wanted to like this book, since it is not badly written, but it was just boring.

[Klara Sjo]

As always, entertaining, particularly if you have an insight into the world of amateur musicians. Bit really should come with a link to the playlist.

[Prerana Shah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is such a fun read to learn about the orchestra scene in London. The book cover is what drew my attention and is very apt with the story.