Book description
It's 1951, and ragtime is making a comeback. In Sedalia, Missouri,
plans are underway for a ceremony to honor Scott Joplin. Brun Campbell,
the old Ragtime Kid, is working to establish Joplin's legacy. Brun
learns of a journal Joplin kept and wants to show it to Sedalia's movers
and shakers, hoping to persuade them to set up a ragtime museum.
Unfortunately for Brun, author/historian Rudi Blesh is deter-mined to
publish the journal. But Joplin's old friend wants to suppress the
material. Even worse, two Sedalia Klansmen are hot after the journal and
don't care if they have to kill someone to get it. What's one murder,
compared to the Klansmen's grand plan to blow up the high school
auditorium with its integrated audience during the ceremony? In the
middle of this imbroglio is Alan Chandler, a 17-year-old pianist in love
with ragtime. If Alan can stay alive, he may be able to prevent
catastrophe and learn what it really means to be Black in 1950s America.
Karp wraps up his ragtime mystery trilogy (following The King of
Ragtime, 2008) by returning to the life of Brun Campbell, hero of the
series opener, The Ragtime Kid (2006). The story picks up in 1951 with
aging Brun finding a new friend in 17-year-old ragtime fan Alan
Chandler. The two, who live on opposite coasts, meet in Sedalia
Missouri, at a 1951 Scott Joplin festival and are brought together by
their interest in Joplin's recently discovered journal, which is being
held by his increasingly ill and senile widow. The 1951 setting lends
itself to an exploration of Klan activities, as a local group plans to
attack the Joplin ceremony. As usual, Karp populates his book with
nearly as many historical characters as fictional ones, many of whom
will be familiar to readers who enjoyed the earlier books. Ragtime
remains central to the series, both in terms of its ambience and its
plots, making the trilogy a must recommendation to fans of jazz and
American roots music. Larry Karp grew up in Paterson, NJ and New York
City. He practiced perinatal medicine and wrote general nonfiction books
and articles for 25 years, then, in 1994, left medical work to write
mystery novels full-time. The backgrounds and settings of Larry's
mysteries reflect many of his interests, including musical antiques,
medical-ethical issues, and ragtime music. His current book, The Ragtime
Fool, the third work in a ragtime mystery trilogy, centers on the work
of ragtime revivalists during a 1951 ceremony in Sedalia, MO, and the
opposition the ragtimers faced from bigots in that racially-divided time
and place, Larry lives with his wife Myra in Seattle; they have two
grown children.
