Published By: Doubleday
Pages: 416
Released On: 13/05/2025
Curtis Wilson is a cello prodigy, growing up in the Southeast D.C. projects with a drug dealer for a father. But through determination and talent, and the loving support of his father’s girlfriend, Larissa, Curtis claws his way out of his challenging circumstances and rises to unimagined heights in the classical music world—even soloing with the New York Philharmonic.
And then, suddenly, his life disintegrates. His father, Zippy, turns state evidence, implicating his old bosses to the FBI. Now the family—Curtis included—must enter the witness protection program if they want to survive. This means Curtis must give up the very thing he loves most: sharing his extraordinary musical talents with the world. When Zippy’s bosses prove too elusive for law enforcement to convict them, Curtis, Zippy, and Larissa realize that their only chance of survival is to take on the cartel themselves. They must create new identities and draw on their unique talents, including Curtis’s musical ability, to go after the people who want them dead. But will it be enough to keep Curtis and his family alive?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Brendan’s book The Violin Conspiracy was one of my favourite books of 2022 and I’ve been looking forward to a new book since then. Although I have just found out he wrote another book called Symphony of Secrets between that one and this one, so I’m definitely going to check that out too!
You can tell he has a love and passion for music, you don’t just get that same love out of research alone.
There are 55 chapters, which might seem like a lot, but that’s only an average of about 6-7 pages a chapter, some are much shorter and some longer, but it’s a nice balance.
His words just glide off the page, making for an easy, effortless read, and before you know it you’ll be halfway through.
It’s not always an easy book to read topic wise, especially near the beginning, it can get quite uncomfortable. But it’s a great juxtaposition, this idea of beautiful classical music living side by side with crime.
The plot, at times, felt a little hard to believe, especially near the end but I didn’t mind so much. Because whilst the plot is key, for me I was fixated on the characters of our main three players – Zippy, Curtis and Larissa. And the surrounding characters. It’s fairly split between goodies and baddies, but everyone has a bit of a grey area about them. And whilst there are some big baddies, I still liked them because they’re so well formed.
I definitely preferred the first half where it focussed more on the music and family. Once it went into witness protection and whatnot, whilst I still thoroughly enjoyed it, I found it a little harder to get into.
Brendan went onto my list of authors to always read after The Violin Conspiracy, and even though this wasn’t 100% to my taste, he still keeps his spot on that list. His storytelling, his characterisation, his ability to write such emotion, is very impressive.
I always read the acknowledgements of a book but I know some don’t, but I definitely think you should with this one. It gives some context to the story and I think it adds an extra layer of understanding to the story.
For me, it didn’t hit the heights of The Violin Conspiracy, but I think that’s because I thought The Violin Conspiracy was exceptional and it was always going to be a difficult task to reach those heights. But it is still an incredibly great book. Great characters, interesting plot, there’s romance and thrill, and it’s very human. It has such depth, especially regarding the intersection of music and emotion, to get that on the page is wonderful.
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