Synopsis
It's 1916, and time's running out for Scott Joplin. Before he dies, he wants to provide for his wife and to secure his place in musical history. He's written a musical drama. His young piano student, Martin Niederhoffer, who works as a bookkeeper at Waterson, Berlin, and Snyder Music Publishers, convinces him to try to get Irving Berlin to publish and produce the work. The next day, Niederhoffer walks into his office and finds Joplin crouched over the blood-soaked body of a young man. He hustles his teacher away; unfortunately, the two are seen leaving the building. Nell Stark, daughter of Joplin's first publisher, John Stark, hides Joplin and Niederhoffer from the police and calls her father in from St. Louis to help sort out the mess. After Berlin flatly denies ever having received Joplin's play, young Niederhoffer breaks cover and engages the services of hit man Footsie Vinny, who gives Berlin a five-day deadline to come up with the manuscript. And just when things couldn't get worse, Niederhoffer's girlfriend, Birdie, is kidnapped. Nell and John Stark must get around Joplin's fragile mental and emotional state, Berlin's dogged resistance, Niederhoffer's impulsiveness, the police, and their own loving but edgy relationship in order to locate Joplin's work, find Birdie, and exonerate the composer and the bookkeeper.
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About the Author
Larry Karp's first published mystery fiction was a serial called Richard Richard, Private Dick, which appeared in a neighborhood newspaper Larry wrote, printed, and distributed when he was eight. Larry has also written long and short nonfiction, practiced perinatal medicine, and restored and collected antique music boxes. Larry says he's a New Yorker, though he and his wife have lived in Seattle for thirty years and counting. They have two grown children. The King of Ragtime is second in his Ragtime Mysteries series, following The Ragtime Kid.
From AudioFile
Mirron Willis gives a virtuoso performance in Larry Karp's second immersion in the syncopated rhythms of ragtime. In THE RAGTIME KID, listeners were present at ragtime's beginnings. Here, the musical genre is dying, as is its most famous practitioner, Scott Joplin. In desperation, Joplin takes his latest work to Irving Berlin, although he believes Berlin plagiarized his earlier work. Because of the advanced state of his illness, Joplin's grip on reality is shaky, and when he's found standing over a body holding a straight razor, no one is sure of what happened. Willis never strikes a false note in Karp's well-researched period mystery. He fashions living human beings of all colors, textures, and dispositions with only his smooth, sultry voice. A rich listen. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
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