The Violin Conspiracy (by Brendan Slocumb)

This is advertised as a "mystery" so I guess I'll put the mystery tag on it, but really it's more of a künstlerroman with a splash of mystery in it as a framing device. The main character is a classical violinist whose Stradivarius gets stolen in the opening. Lest we think he's overreacting (he reacts really badly) we flash back to find out the whole history of how he got the violin and how he - a Black musician - has faced racism throughout his entire career as a violin prodigy. The emotional importance of the violin to him becomes very clear by the end of this.

This is a Tournament of Books pick and starts off slow, but picks  up steam through the end. The resolution of the mystery is fine and I enjoyed the main character and his insights into the racism of the classical music world (which is based on the author's real experiences). However, the characters are incredibly flat. For example, his mother is just awful. He says he loves her but... why? She never says or does anything that isn't awful and all we see her do is crush his dreams and demand money from him. 

This is a real miss because his family (who is 90% evil) has a good point about the violin being their family legacy, and even the racist family (former slaveowners of his family) trying to get the violin back doesn't need to be comprised of evil caricatures. I guess that sums it up: the writing is good and the main character compelling, but a bit more moral complexity would have been good.