As a black man who grew up poor in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian doesn't have a lot of choices. If he's lucky, he'll graduate high school and work a minimum-wage job at a grocery to support his family. Never mind his enthusiasm and talent for playing the violin; becoming a musician is simply out of the question. When the old fiddle his grandmother left him turns out to be a Stradivarius, everything Ray had ever dreamed of suddenly seems possible until someone stole the violin before the Tchaikovsky Competition. Ray must do everything he can to prove himself as a great musician while recovering his lost violin.

The Violin Conspiracy is a phenomenal book on racism and poverty in the world of classical music. Brendan Slocumb is masterful in writing about Ray's struggles and describing the music vividly while not losing the urgency of a mystery thriller. I enjoyed the book immensely and could almost hear the music while reading it—a truly remarkable and unputdownable work.