Scamming the Birdman: A Dr. Thomas Purdue Mystery [Paperback]

Larry Karp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2001

Life's been routine for Thomas Purdue since he and his friends solved the music box murders last Christmas. It's the following summer now, a steamy August in New York, and Thomas' friend Hugh Curtis has just burst in with the appalling news that someone ripped off his world-class collection of musical snuffboxes. Not just any someone, either: the thief is Vincent LoPriore, a very nasty, intimidating man who happens to be an ardent collector of elegant antique singing mechanical birds. Not only that: LoPriore enlisted the aid of Hugh's wife Maddy to make off the with the collection and all proof of Hugh's ownership. Worst of all, Maddy is now in the Manhattan Medical Emergency Room, with nine toes in the grave.

Lost collection ... lost wife ... Hugh Curtis has no recourse. Or does he? Thomas has an idea. With the help of his old friends Broadway Schwartz, Big Al Resford, and Frank the Crank, he sets out to put matters right. But it's a big job, so Thomas recruits some new players into the gang; Edna Reynolds, makeup artist; Cleveland Gackle, lockpicker extraordinaire; Mick the Dick and Soapy Sandy, strong-arm and pickpocket team; "Nozey" Espinoza, hotel owner; and Fenton Dassidario, electronic genius.

And then there's their mark: The Birdman. "What Vincent LoPriore wants, Vincent LoPriore gets," he said to Hugh Curtis. In this marvelous sequel to The Music Box Murders, Thomas sets out to give LoPriore a lot more than he wants!

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... great read." -- The Pilot, Southern Pines, NC, July 10, 2000

"... rapid tale of scams, combined with cons, combined with hustles. Do not play pool or poker with this man." -- Jack Cady, Off Season

"...his {Karp's} ending is one that's worthy of Westlake and then some." -- L.A. Times, March 26, 2000

"The sting in Scamming the Birdman is intricate and immensely satisfying." -- The Tacoma News Tribune, March 2000

"We just loved the first book, and we loved this one even more." -- Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine, Summer 2000

"Witty dialogue, hair-trigger plotting and an ending that will set you right back on your heels." --

Scamming the Birdman is a museum-quality madcap masterpiece." -- The Bellingham Herald, August 20, 2000

a brillant and satisfying conclusion." -- Musical Box Society International, Issue 154, May/June 2000 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Mr. Karp lives with his wife outside of Seattle, WA. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Worldwide Library (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373263872
• ISBN-13: 978-0373263875
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Larry Karp grew up in Paterson, New Jersey and New York City. He worked as a specialist in complicated pregnancy care for 25 years, founding the Prenatal Diagnosis Center at the University of Washington, and Swedish Medical Center's Department of Perinatal Medicine. Residents in the Family Practice Programs at both Swedish and Providence Hospitals named him Teacher of the Year.

During his medical years, Larry wrote newspaper and magazine articles on a wide range of subjects, as well as a monthly column of commentary for the American Journal of Medical Genetics. He also wrote three nonfiction books. The View from The Vue described life as a med student and intern at New York's Bellevue Hospital; The Enchanted Ear was a collection of anecdotes about collecting and restoring antique music boxes. Genetic Engineering: Threat or Promise discussed the newly-emerging fields of genetic manipulation in humans. (Of this work, the author of a major genetics textbook wrote, "Of the many recent books on genetic engineering the only one that...carefully delineates the limits of current knowledge and tries to evaluate the significance of recent advances without resorting to sensationalism is by Karp").

Larry collects and restores antique music boxes, and is a regular contributor to Mechanical Music, the magazine of the Music Box Society International. In 1997, the Society presented him the Bowers Literary Award "for outstanding literary contributions to the field of automatic music."

In 1995, Larry left medical work to write full-time. He chose to write mysteries because the genre demands stories to be well-paced and tightly-constructed, but does not preclude the possibility of presenting characters and ideas which refuse to leave the reader's mind once he or she closes the back cover of the book. Larry set his well-received Music Box Mystery Series (The Music Box Murders, Scamming the Birdman and The Midnight Special) in present-day New York City. For his next book, First, Do No Harm, a World-War II home-front standalone involving complex and troubling medical ethical issues, he moved back to 1943 to a fictionalized Paterson.

Then, Larry ranged further back and farther away to write a historical-mystery trilogy, three books which blended fiction into history to look at signal events, social attitudes and racial relations at the birth, death, and revival of ragtime music in America. The first book, The Ragtime Kid, was set in Sedalia, Missouri in 1899, when white music-store owner John Stark made the extraordinary and unexplained offer of a royalties contract for a tune, "Maple Leaf Rag", by a young, little-known black composer named Scott Joplin. The second book in the trilogy, The King of Ragtime, was set in New York City in 1916, and centered on a real-life dispute between Joplin and Irving Berlin over an accusation of musical plagiarism and theft. The third book, The Ragtime Fool, completes the trilogy, as Brun Campbell, the old Ragtime Kid, comes back to Sedalia in 1951 to take care of some unfinished business.

What's the latest? During his first career, Larry served as Medical Director of Swedish Medical Center's Reproductive Genetics Facility and delivered the first baby in the Pacific Northwest conceived through in vitro fertilization. He drew on that experience to write A PERILOUS CONCEPTION, the story of an overly-ambitious young obstetrician in the Pacific Northwest, secretly trying to make medical history by producing the world's first IVF baby. Unfortunately, that sort of secret is hard to keep, and the upshot is blackmail and murder.

Larry's books have been finalists for the Daphne and Spotted Owl Awards, and have appeared on the Los Angeles Times (The Ragtime Kid, December 2006) and Seattle Times (The King of Ragtime, November 2008) Fiction Best-Seller Lists.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fasten your seatbelts!, June 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Scamming the Birdman: A Thomas Purdue Mystery (Hardcover)

I've been eagerly awaiting Larry Karp's next mystery ever since I read his first one. This fast-moving caper brings back the quirky characters that fascinated me before, and introduces new ones as well. And I didn't guess the twist at the end! Karp's plots are witty enough to keep intelligent readers entertained, and devious enough not to be obvious. Discover this fine new series for yourself!

5.0 out of 5 stars Scamming the Birdman, July 15, 2009

By 

Max Morath - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scamming the Birdman: A Dr. Thomas Purdue Mystery (Paperback)

I came late to "Scamming the Birdman," having become a Larry Karp fan upon reading his wonderful Ragtime mysteries of more recent vintage. In those books his scenes are set in the past - places like Sedalia, Missouri around 1900 and New York City a few years later. His research is always spot on. I don't know of another author who better combines time and place with good fiction than Karp. In this yarn, the time is today and the place New York, and the fiction is a dizzy caper combining mechanical birds, snuff boxes, and other "automata" from the 18th and 19th centuries, with murder, mayhem and lots of money. Halfway into the book I couldn't resist casting the movie version. With characters like Cleveland Gackle, Broadway Schwartz, and Frank the Crank, it would be a box office winner for sure. So far it's my favorite summer read.

4.0 out of 5 stars A great adventure!, May 24, 2005

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scamming the Birdman: A Thomas Purdue Mystery (Hardcover)

Karp has put together a wonderful cast of characters, devised an elaborate plot and allowed us to go along for the ride. The information on music boxes is fascinating and doesn't slow down the story. My criticisms are small; for a wealthy doctor he never seems to practice, and I'm a little tired of couples who love each other but can't live together. On the positive side, it's fun and suspenseful with a great twist at the end. I'll definitely go along with Purdue and pals on their next adventure.