A present-day musical researcher digs into the legacy of one of the world's most beloved composers, and whether his music was truly his to begin with. Brendan Slocumb (The Violin Conspiracy) explores the intersections of race, wealth, power, and legacy in the gripping novel Symphony of Secrets.
Bern Hendricks is the preeminent living scholar of composer Frederic Delaney, whose career in the 1920s and 1930s rocketed toward fame and stardom before crashing with an epic failure. When the Delaney Foundation--founded and funded by the composer--reaches out to Bern to help study a newly discovered piece of Delaney's music, Bern, who had always felt a "deep, unreasonable connection" to the composer, leaps at the opportunity. But Bern and his colleague Eboni discover clues that Delaney may not have written any of his music but, instead, taken it from a neurodivergent Black woman named Josephine Reed, and they find themselves scrambling to uncover a truth that the wealthy white descendants of Frederic Delaney are determined to keep hidden.
Slocumb moves between the present-day story of Bern and Eboni's research work and the story of Delaney and Josephine Reed in the 1920s and '30s. Both timelines build with an increasing sense of urgency and desperation as the characters work to release epic music ("invention... synthesis and heartrending melodies") into the world. Set within the racialized dynamic of American history, Symphony of Secrets poses questions of power and autonomy, authorship and attribution. It is a compelling tale of music and mystery not to be missed by fans of either. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer