The King of Ragtime

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 summons her father 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....

Set in Manhattan in 1916, Karp's well-crafted second homage to ragtime (after 2006's The Ragtime Kid) charts Scott Joplin's race against time and the effects of a ravaging illness to secure his musical legacy. Joplin has written a musical play that he wants Irving Berlin to publish and produce. In the past, Joplin has accused Berlin of plagiarizing his music, but Martin Niederhoffer, a piano student of Joplin's and an employee of Berlin's firm, persuades Joplin to try Berlin again. When Niederhoffer and Joplin are seen fleeing the scene of a murder, they're forced into hiding while Scott's friend Nell Stanley, a musician, and her music publisher father try to find the real killer. Going undercover at Berlin's publishing company, Stanley proves to be a formidable detective, though her investigation uncovers some painful truths about both Joplin and her father. Karp's meticulous research helps create a vivid picture of the time and locale. Memorable, authentic characters are another plus. (Oct.)
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Karp dishes up another serving of music and murder, with a side of racism, in the second volume in his ragtime mystery trilogy (after The Ragtime Kid, 2006). It’s 1916, and Scott Joplin, anxious to have his new musical drama published, approaches the lily-white New York music publishing firm of Waterson, Berlin, and Snyder, where he stumbles on a murder in which he is soon implicated. Joplin, his physical and mental health deteriorating from syphilis, is helped first by an admiring young bookkeeper at the firm, then by old friends Nell Stanley and her publisher father, John Stark. As a kidnapping and another killing ensue, the intrepid father-daughter duo seeks the actual instigators. Once again, Karp populates his mystery more with historical figures than fictional characters, capturing the hostile nature of Irving Berlin (whom Joplin still resents for stealing his tune for “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”) and depicting the prejudice of the time. An extensively researched and eminently readable historical mystery, this is a must for ragtime fans. --Michele Leber