By Brendan Slocumb
A Captivating and Thought-Provoking Thriller
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SUMMARY
Professor and scholar Bern Hendricks is an expert on the world-renown composer Frederick Delaney and is asked to authenticate one of Delano’s long-lost pieces of music. The recently found music may be the famous opera titled RED, celebrating the Olympics. Bern is honored and overjoyed to be asked to perform the authentication by the Delaney Foundation. Bern owes his entire career to the Delaney Foundation. But as Bern and his friend, Eboni, discover, things are not quite what they seem. Doodles on the pages of the music seem to tell a different story. There’s a woman that was somehow connected to Delaney, her name was Josephine Reed, and her name keeps coming up.
Delaney, who died in 1936, had been one of the greatest and most prolific composers since Beethoven. Bern thought he knew everything there was to know about the man and his music, but from the doodles on the music pages, he discovers a different truth behind Delaney’s success. It’s a truth that could ruin the Delaney Foundation, and they are not pleased with the discovery.
REVIEW
Symphony of Secrets is a captivating and thought-provoking thriller. It will be a hit with all readers, classical music-lover or not. It’s far too beautifully written and brilliantly plotted, only to be Brendan Slocumb’s second novel.
Slocumb’s writing alternates effortlessly between the present day and the early decades of the twentieth century. The writing builds suspense and delivers a fitting ending with a meaningful message. The characters are unique and well-defined. Josephine and Eboni’s characters are unique, and Bern is a new courageous superhero!
Author Brendan Slocum was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and has a degree in music education with a concentration in violin and viola from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. He has been a public and private school educator for twenty years. He serves as an educational consultant for the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. In 2022, he published his first novel, The Violin Conspiracy, one of the year's best books.
Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf Pantheon Vintage and Anchor for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher Knopf Pantheon Vintage and Anchor
Published April 18, 2023
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com
