Why would I stop after reading the first third of a book to see if my local library had the first book by an author who is new to me and put it on reserve? I’ll tell you.
First of all, Brendan Slocumb in Symphony of Secrets, combines my favorite genres with a historical novel that rotates between today and the 1920s and encases mystery and intrigue in both places.
The book begins as Bern Hendricks, musicology professor, whose life was changed by a Delaney music scholarship when he was a child is called on by the Delaney Foundation to authenticate a newly found masterpiece of composer Frederick Delaney. In the course of this work, he finds mysterious markings on the composer’s music and discovers a link to Josephine Reed, a Black woman who appeared in Delaney’s life about the time the struggling musician began to break into his status as a power in the music world. What is her place in the great composer’s life and work?
In the 1920s scene, Josephine has what would be labelled today as both the gift and challenge of autism as she sees color in melody and has perfect recall of sound. The question is whether Frederick Delaney uses her or rescues her. That question leaves Bern Hendricks and his authentication partner Eboni Washington looking for clues that may put them at odds with the foundation. Remembering the opportunities from the foundation that have changed his life, Bern must make some hard decisions about the truth.
Some knowledge and appreciation of music is helpful, but necessary, to becoming intrigued by the twists and turns of this novel. It was not surprising to learn that the author was a music education major in college! As for the answer to my beginning question, Slocumb’s first book, The Violin Conspiracy, was at the library and is making its way quickly to the top of my TBR stack.