The Ragtime Fool (Ragtime Mysteries) [Paperback]

Larry Karp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2010 | Series: Ragtime Mysteries

It's 1951, and ragtime is making a comeback. In Sedalia, Missouri, plans are well along 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 determined to publish the journal. Also, 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 mid-Twentieth Century America.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

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. --Jessica Moyer --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"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."  -- Booklist

"In the final volume of his Ragtime trilogy (The King of Ragtime, 2008, etc.), Karp seamlessly weaves real people like Campbell into an interesting historical yarn with a whodunit kicker."  -- Kirkus Reviews

"Karp handles the intricate plot well, but the best part of the book is its picture of people torn between what they want to forget and what they need to remember." -- Publisher's Weekly

 

 

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Product Details

• Paperback: 314 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (April 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590587162
• ISBN-13: 978-1590587164
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,211,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Karp concludes his "Ragtime" trilogy with a bang!, July 7, 2010

By 

Ruth Greiner "Mystery reader" (Camp Hill, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ragtime Fool (Ragtime Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Larry Karp's excellent The Ragtime Fool concludes the trilogy which began with The Ragtime Kid. At the end of that book, its titular hero, Brun Campbell, departed Sedalia, Missouri, under a bit of a cloud. Now it's 1951, fifty-two years have passed, and he's a piano-playing barber in Venice, California, doing his best to spread the gospel of ragtime. But it's an uphill battle, so when he learns that Sedalia is planning to honor his mentor, Scott Joplin, Brun makes up his mind to go there, and he lets nothing--not his wife, not his finances, not even the police, who find him "of interest" in a suspicious death--stand in his way. Even more importantly, there's word that Joplin left a journal, and Brun is determined to get his hands on it and get Joplin the recognition he deserves. But others want that journal, as well, and not all of them are fans of Joplin; some others, in fact, want to make sure the journal never again sees the light of day.

In some respects, this book hovers on the verge of being a caper novel. There are, after all, six or seven partnerships, some of them pretty unlikely, prowling the streets of Sedalia on the track of this journal; and there are lots of near-misses as the journal changes hands. There's a sort of romance, too, between a young man who's also crazy about ragtime and the girl who believes in him enough to bankroll him. But there's also a vicious plot looming, to dynamite the high school where the tribute to Joplin is to take place. Indeed, violence frames this novel, from California to Missouri.

As in the previous novels in this trilogy, the cast of The Ragtime Fool is partly real and partly fictional, partly white and partly black, partly good and partly bad. Race plays an important part in the story of ragtime, and so it does in this novel--the casual ugliness of racial bias permeates every neighborhood but one. Happily, there are good people, both black and white, who look after each other and do the right thing. As always, Karp's impeccable research enables him to paint a vivid picture of 1950's Sedalia, and he's created some wonderful characters to tell his ragtime story, especially a precocious teen-aged investment whiz, and a wonderful heroic lady who has enough starch in her to keep everyone straight. Young Alan Chandler, Brun's fictional apprentice, is as single-minded as Brun, and as impulsive; and his short stay in Sedalia changes his life forever.

So who is The Ragtime Fool? Well, Brun and his sometime pupil, Alan, are surely fools for ragtime; and there are the ignorant fools who define a man's worth by the color of his skin; and then there are a lot of men who are fooled by their own self-importance. There's plenty of foolery to go around, and plenty of good reading in this book. Find yourself some ragtime music, sit down and read the whole trilogy, and see for yourself.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars His Version, June 22, 2010

By 

Ted Feit (Long Beach, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Ragtime Fool (Ragtime Mysteries) (Hardcover)

This novel wraps up a trilogy about the life and times of Scott Joplin. The year is 1951, and the town of Sedalia, MO, is planning a ceremony to honor the ragtime king and place a plaque up on the wall of the "colored" high school. The only white pupil of Joplin, Brun Campbell, the old Ragtime Kid, who has lived as a barber in Venice, CA, for many years, playing his piano in his shop, wants to create a more fitting memorial to Joplin, hoping to play at the ceremony and induce the citizens of Sedalia to build a museum about ragtime.

Into this mix is a young 17-year-old New Jersey lad who becomes enthused about ragtime on hearing some tunes on the radio, the negotiations with Joplin's widow for a journal he wrote, the death of Brun's long-time friend and an assortment of complications, including members of the Sedalia Ku Klux Klan and competition among various persons to obtain control of the journal for a variety of reasons.

Entertaining in more ways than one, the novel, of course, as is the entire trilogy, is based loosely on historical fact and real and imagined persons. Well-written and constructed with an eye to keeping it suspenseful, "Ragtime" is recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast action and strong characterization make this a winner, June 18, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ragtime Fool (Ragtime Mysteries) (Hardcover)

The Ragtime Fool provides a fine, satisfying mystery set in 1951 when ragtime is making a comeback in Missouri. A ceremony to celebrate Scott Joplin comes under fire when an old friend wants to suppress secrets. Fast action and strong characterization make this a winner.