The Violin Conspiracy, Slocumb - B+

                          This is a truly exceptional novel about a young Black man named Ray. He grows up poor in North Carolina and becomes a violin virtuoso without the help of any lessons.  Against the wishes of his mother, he accepts a scholarship to university, and continues to excel. Along the way, he is subject to massive amounts of racism of the "your kind" can't really play a violin at the concert level variety. But he can. His future is enhanced when his great grandmother tells him to go up to the attic to search for her grandfather's fiddle. He eventually finds it, his great-grandmother gives it to him, and he continues to advance. After college, he begins to play solos around the country and prosper under the tutelage of his college professor. They go to a music repair shop in Manhattan, where they discover that the fiddle is a Stradivarius worth $10m. Soon, his story is on the national news. At that point, his family sues him to compel him to share the value of the instrument. The Georgia family who owned his great grandmother's grandfather, the slave Leon, sues as well. In the midst of preparing for the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the violin is stolen. Ray is forlorn, but prepares and wins the Silver Medal with a back-up instrument. Back in the states, he and the insurance company detective figure out who stole it. A great read.