The Sedalia Two-Step

Set in Sedalia, Missouri, America’s ragtime music capital of the late 19th century, Larry Karp’s new historical mystery, The Ragtime Kid, follows a runaway piano-playing wunderkind who becomes a student of the great Scott Joplin--only to have to protect that black composer from charges of murdering a white woman.

“All of the necessary elements for crafting a fine mystery exist within the bare-bones plot Karp provides,” critic Stephen Miller writes today in January Magazine. “The racial tension of Sedalia and the lingering resentments over the sacrifices some had to make in the Civil War ... could make for a powerful overlap to a tale of suspense and intrigue.” However, he adds, “The Ragtime Kid suffers from lack of focus and competing agendas.”

Read the whole review here.