Tournament of Books discussion

Space to discuss the 2023 TOB contender The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb.

Loved this debut. The author was a Booktopia author this past May but unfortunately he came down with Covid and we had to visit with him over Zoom. His life experience mirrors that of the protagonist in many ways. I’d be happy to see him win the Rooster but this is not your typical TOB book.

I'm wondering how easy it was to follow for non-musicians -- not the mystery part, but the rest of it. Any thoughts?

I don’t have a music background but I cared enough to listen to the compositions he mentions. I felt it added to the experience. Someone in our group made a playlist but Brendan has his own on Spotify.

Dianah wrote: "I'm wondering how easy it was to follow for non-musicians -- not the mystery part, but the rest of it. Any thoughts?"

I don't think you need to have any special knowledge of classical music to follow the book. It's pretty straightforward.

Though I respect the experiences that went into the writing of this book, I found the story rather pedestrian and the ending predictable. I read this book earlier in the year and frankly, I’m surprised it made the ToB.

I think it was a perfectly fine book. Not one I'd have picked for the tournament, but a nice afternoon read.

Eric and Kyle: same.

Also, for readers of mystery novels (they are my guilty pleasure when I take a break from literary fiction), the “mystery” was quite obvious. I was so disappointed to have called it about three paragraphs after that character was introduced.

I did appreciate gaining perspective on the experience of Black classical musicians and … I would’ve appreciated that just as much had the author written a personal essay on the topic for the Atlantic or Harpers.

I agree - pedestrian and predictable. And also implausible. I really enjoyed the thoughts about black folks struggling to get a foot hold in the world of classical music, and I could feel the author's joy in making music. I just didn't think it worked at all as a mystery. And none of the characters rang true to me.

Decent story, but there were tons of flaws and shortcomings for me. I enjoyed learning about an experience I was unfamiliar with, but I wish the writing had gone deeper, and I was super disappointed by the part of the ending where (we’re open to spoilers in these individual book threads, right?) it was considered a happy resolution that Nicole and Marcus went to prison.

I saw in another thread that there was question of their race, and if someone with a print copy (I listened to this from the library) can check the scene where Nicole is first introduced… I’m 95% sure those characters (or at least Nicole) are Black. Since this story focuses on injustices for Black musicians, along with the horrors of the legacy of slavery in the US (and the audacity of white families who still have a tight grip on entitlement), I’m very confused and sad about how the resolution of Ray’s experience was to advocate for the people who took his violin to go to prison for as long as possible, the institution that upholds slavery today. And Black folks (I’m pretty sure) at that. And Nicole explained how she was just trying to make it in the music world as he was, and that was the only option she could see. Sure, I’m not saying it’s ok what she did, but Ray got it back and was able to succeed, and then still wanted vengeance, sending her and Marcus to suffer for years in prison. I know I’m biased on this topic as an abolitionist, but it’s pretty disappointing that books are still upholding these harmful narratives of people going to prison being the “happily ever after.”

Other than that, I generally enjoyed the story, and the narrator of the audio version was great, especially since I recognized him from Hell of a Book.

Lauren wrote: "...I saw in another thread that there was question of their race, and if someone with a print copy (I listened to this from the library) can check the scene where Nicole is first introduced…"

Nicole appears on the very first page of the story. Just glancing through, the only descriptors I saw for her do not identify her race:
pp. 3-4: "She twisted and untwisted a lock of auburn hair, the eighth-note tattoo above her wrist rhythmically flickering and disappearing."

Then chapter 20 relates how Ray met Nicole:
pp. 204-05: "On the first stand in the viola section, a young woman with auburn hair and wide-set hazel eyes was nodding almost before the conductor got the words out. . . . Her left arm had a single eighth-note tattoo right above her wrist. She had a seriously athletic body, too."
pp. 206: ". . . he headed up to the stage, lurking in the wings for a glimpse of her: a delicate gold chain around an elegant neck, below a dark red French braid."
pp. 209: "Nicole, her dark auburn hair loose around her face."

Then regarding Marcus Terry:
p. 316: "A Google search of Marcus Terry turned up a handsome, worked-out man in his early thirties. His dark brown hair hung to his shoulders, framing a square face with very this eyebrows and a thin mustache. His nose looked like it had been broken a few times."
p. 319: "On the far-left corner of the fridge, beneath a coupon for protein powder and hanging awry, was a photo of a shirtless Marcus Terry hugging a young woman with auburn hair and a single music note tattooed above her wrist: Nicole."
But this seems to strongly suggest Marcus is not black: p. 319: "He decided to get out: a Black man coming out of Marcus Terry's home would, no doubt, raise eyebrows."

It seems especially odd that Nicole's race and Marcus's race aren't specifically identified, because the race/nationality/etc of seemingly every other character is not only identified but emphasized. Anyway, every reader can draw their own conclusions.

Phyllis wrote: "Lauren wrote: "...I saw in another thread that there was question of their race, and if someone with a print copy (I listened to this from the library) can check the scene where Nicole is first int..."

Thanks for sharing all these details! It sounds like Marcus is white, and Nicole is likely also white (although it's not impossible for Black folks to have red hair and hazel eyes). That makes the prison thing slightly less egregious, but only slightly. ;)

Since this one is going up against Manhunt (which I haven't read, but it sounds like it's not great), it could have a chance of moving forward, but there were still plenty of improvements needed. I don't envy the judge getting that matchup since it's not as fun if you don't love either book (but maybe the judge will love one or both of these, who knows!).

I don't read mysteries often, so I really enjoyed this book for its quick pace and engaging plot. I didn't like several things about the end though - the letter was too convenient, the thief a little obvious, but my main disappointment was Ray not having any good resolution with his family. I was hoping the story would have more repair of those relationships, especially his mother. Maybe that would have been too sappy in the end.

But overall those things didn't kill it for me, so I still gave it 4 stars.

Bretnie wrote: "I don't read mysteries often, so I really enjoyed this book for its quick pace and engaging plot. I didn't like several things about the end though - the letter was too convenient, the thief a litt..."

This is what is great about the Tournament - the variety of reactions among our commentariat members to the same book. This one was a "meh" for me -- probably the weakest entry of those I've read so far. But, I agree that it was a fast and easy read.

I'm listening to this audiobook, I'm only about 2/3 of the way through right now (it's slow going for me with this one!) so I'm not reading any of these comments right now. But I just wanted to tell SOMEONE: often when I listen to audiobooks, I do pictorial logic puzzles, especially the free puzzles offered each week on conceptis dot com. (For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about: you follow certain numerical rules to fill in the blocks, and a picture forms.) And the puzzle I'm doing right now is a VIOLINIST!! what are the odds!?

Nadine, that is an intense coincidence! And it sounds like a very cool game. :)

I finished this weekend. This was okay. I gave it four stars, because once it got past the slow beginning, I did become interested, and I cared about Ray. I'm not sure if I'll really remember much about it after a few weeks, and I don't think I'll read Slocum's next musical mystery that's coming out this Spring.

Slocum clearly had a lot bottled up inside that he needed to get into a novel, and I felt like he threw it ALL in, sometimes at the expense of the flow and pacing of the novel.

Firstly, and this is a "me" thing, I am never interested in reading about music, so the flowery , metaphor-laden descriptions of what the music sounded like to Ray just annoyed me and added nothing to my reading experience. The descriptions of his practice schedule, the pieces he learned, and other preparations for the competition were interesting, it was just all the bits about "musical notes leaped with joy and skipped along the riverbanks before landing gently in the tree branches at dusk" that annoyed me. (To be clear, I just made that up, that's not an actual quote from the book.)



Some of this will be a spoiler ...

Secondly, while I appreciated how in-your-face his descriptions of racism were, it didn't always make sense within the plot. Uncle Roger's racism furthered the plot of Ray's coming of age, and Pop-Pop's experiences as a slave furthered the plot of the violin's origins, but the entire interlude in Baton Rouge did not add anything to the plot. The author's note makes it clear that this is semi-autobiographical, and the event in Baton Rouge really happened to Slocum, and I felt like he decided it WOULD be in his book, whether or not it added anything to the story.

I did think it was interesting that Nicole's race was not specified. I assumed she was Black, since in a book that was basically all about a Black musician's experience with racism - both in general society and in the classical music world - I figured his experiences dating a white woman would have been interesting and relevant. But since that was never mentioned, I assumed she was not white. The description of auburn hair and hazel eyes read as a light-skinned Black woman to me.

I was disappointed that there was nothing mentioned about Nicole's family, too. Where did she come from? Did she grow up in Erie? Did she struggle with sexism and racism in the classical music world? How did her family feel about her travelling around the world with Ray? We never really got to know Nicole, and I have no idea if she was a cold-hearted grifter or if she cared about Ray.

I didn't understand why Ray's mother was so completely awful to him. I know most of Ray's family had to be greedy and uninterested in music in order to add that additional plot tension of their lawsuit and the possibility that they stole the violin for the insurance money, but I didn't understand why his mother had to be that way, also. She could have been a hard-working, impoverished, single mother who was loving and supportive but unable to always be there for Ray. Why did Slocum write her they way he did?? Also, do we know what happened to Ray's father? I just went back and paged through it, and I see nothing explaining where he was - was he dead? were they divorced? did he just abandon them after the twins were born?

The pacing was way off, too. The entire first section with the discovery of the theft and the beginning of the investigation should have been condensed into a brief Prologue. I was bored and irritated reading about repeated showers and breakfasts ordered by people I did not care about yet.

The thief was so obvious that I actually wrote Nicole off as not possible, no mystery would be so obvious. (And the blatant mention of the magazine in Nicole's bathroom when Ray locked himself in there after the 60 Minutes show was so out-of-left-field that I knew it had to be important.) So, I actually WAS surprised at the reveal!

Nadine in NY wrote: "I finished this weekend. This was okay. I gave it four stars, because once it got past the slow beginning, I did become interested, and I cared about Ray. I'm not sure if I'll really remember much ..."

Indeed. And much of the above is why this was only a 3-star read for me. Well-intentioned, just not well executed.

I just finished this yesterday and I don’t have much to add to this conversation. I love mysteries so I figured out that it must be Nicole and I was kind of disappointed by that aspect. I had trouble figuring out her race too and I marked her down as white but she probably was a light skinned Black woman. The side characters were not fully fleshed out. For me, it was his story of trying to rise in the musical world as a Black man that pulled me in. And I loved the descriptions about him playing and interacting with music and I have no background in that. I will definitely check out his next book.

I assumed that Nicole was white because otherwise her experiences as a black musician would have been something she and Ray bonded over, and they never talked about it. But it also seems like if she was white that would have been mentioned by other characters in a book with race as such an important theme. Either way, it seems weird that it was ambiguous. I saw this on a listopia for a book with an interracial relationship, and since I picked it in good faith I’m using it, but really I don’t think it qualifies because Nicole’s race isn’t a factor in the book.

This just fell flat for me. There wasn't any hook so it just seemed pedestrian while it was trying for something meaningful.

Audra wrote: "This just fell flat for me. There wasn't any hook so it just seemed pedestrian while it was trying for something meaningful."




That's a great description of how I felt, too. I guess I gave him an A for Effort so I gave it 4 stars.

At Booktopia Slocum said that he intentionally made Nicole’s race ambiguous but I can’t recall why…perhaps it had something to do with stereotyping.

I agree with the problems you guys have pointed out (especially regarding his mother’s personality and the lack of any information about his father), but I still found this a satisfying and enjoyable read. I rooted for Ray and appreciated learning about the issues he experienced as a Black classical musician.

In case any of you friends have Spotify, Slocumb created a VC inspired playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7Bq...

I waited and waited and waited for this book -- the premise seemed so strong and intriguing. I finally decided to pay for it on audible. I was so excited because JD Jackson narrated it (he also did Hell of a Book, which I thought was terrific).

But good grief. I gave it up about 3 chapters in and returned it. The writing was so ... how shall I say it? Amateur? Juvenile? Not even JD Jackson could redeem it. Oh, and the perpetrator of the theft is so obvious.

Is it pitched to a YA audience?

Jennifer (formerly Eccentric Muse) wrote: "I waited and waited and waited for this book -- the premise seemed so strong and intriguing. I finally decided to pay for it on audible. I was so excited because JD Jackson narrated it (he also did..."

I don't think it is meant to by YA. I do think it is supposed to be more along the lines of a standard mystery/thriller where the writing is not expected to be anything special - it is the plot that counts. And for that, it works. Or it did for me.

Thanks for replying, Ruthiella!

Jennifer (formerly Eccentric Muse) wrote: "Is it pitched to a YA audience?..."

No, the writing was very much in keeping with how most thrillers are written, I'd even say the details about music and racism elevate it significantly over the usual thriller.

In a year where the competitors skewed heavily to genre fiction, this was a fine example of a mainstream thriller. And I liked it more than several of the other genre offerings. But despite liking to read genre fiction, I'm realizing I'd prefer more meaty, literary books in the shortlist.

Alison wrote: "Jennifer (formerly Eccentric Muse) wrote: "Is it pitched to a YA audience?..."

No, the writing was very much in keeping with how most thrillers are written, I'd even say the details about music an..."


Why do you say this list skewed heavily to genre fiction? I haven't read all of them, and I doubt I'll have time, but I only see two, maybe three that are SFF or SFF adjacent (I wouldn't call Sea of Tranquility really SFF - it's literary fiction with a time travel & futuristic element). There's Babel, and My Volcano is sort of weird fiction. What else? And don't the ToB lists often include a few SFF titles? I've only been doing this a few years so I'm not sure. There were four or five titles last year, five or six in the 2021 list. So I thought it was a common feature.

Nadine in NY wrote: "...Why do you say this list skewed heavily to genre fiction?..."
I'm not trying to speak for Alison -- these are my own views. I think we likely have a wide range of views about what constitutes "genre" especially if we are somehow trying to distinguish that from "literary." For myself, I'm pretty sure it is rarely possible to make that clear of a distinction between the two.

I think you could possibly classify this year's books as (among other ways):

coming of age: The Book of Goose; Nightcrawling; Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance; Olga Dies Dreaming (although coming of age late in life, like delayed adolescence); The Rabbit Hutch

dystopia: 2 A.M. in Little America; Manhunt

mystery/thriller: Mouth to Mouth; The Violin Conspiracy

sci-fi/fantasy: Babel; My Volcano; Sea of Tranquility; The Seven Moons of Mali Almeida

That just leaves as unclassified in my list: Dinosaurs; An Island; Mercury Pictures Presents; The Passenger; Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

I'm not suggesting anyone has to agree with my classifications; just that they are possible. I think it has been not uncommon to see several "genre" books in the shortlist the past few years, assuming genre means romance or western or mystery or sci-fi/fantasy. But it's all in the eye of the beholder, yes?

Phyllis wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "...Why do you say this list skewed heavily to genre fiction?..."
I'm not trying to speak for Alison -- these are my own views. I think we likely have a wide range of views abou..."

I counted T&T&T as YA, or at least YA adjacent. You are right that there is probably the same amount as any other year, but as I left that all for the last minute, it feels like more.

I ended up really enjoying this novel despite its significant flaws, including the pedestrian writing, the predictable ending, and the pacing issues. I listened to this as an audiobook, and the narrator was fantastic. That always helps to gloss over mediocre writing. Also, the details about the life of a well-known classical soloist were fascinating. I loved hearing about all the performances and the competition details. I was pulling for Ray the whole time! I will give this one 4 stars despite some serious flaws, which is unusual for me. I think this means I just really enjoyed the overall story.

Gwendolyn wrote: "I ended up really enjoying this novel despite its significant flaws, including the pedestrian writing, the predictable ending, and the pacing issues. I listened to this as an audiobook, and the nar..."



J.D. Jackson is great! Unfortunately for me, a few weeks after I finished listening to Violin Conspiracy, I listened to him read Tyson's Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, and I could not shake the idea of RAY reading the book to me. Made it very difficult to concentrate on astrophysics LOL!!!!

Nadine in NY wrote: "Gwendolyn wrote: "I ended up really enjoying this novel despite its significant flaws, including the pedestrian writing, the predictable ending, and the pacing issues. I listened to this as an audi..."

Haha, I bet it did! I would’ve kept thinking, “He needs to stop reading this right now and go practice his violin for that competition!”

Slocumb has another book coming out next month!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

Kyle wrote: "Slocumb has another book coming out next month!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6..."




LOL who writes this stuff "From the celebrated author of book club favorite The Violin Conspiracy"


IS he celebrated?

IS it a book club favorite???

I mean, it did make a select list of 18 books.

(And it definitely strikes me as book club material.)

Kyle wrote: "I mean, it did make a select list of 18 books. ... "


Fair point.

I do think my book club would enjoy this one. haha