It's 1916 and time is running out for Scott Joplin. He's written a new musical drama and his young piano student, Martin Niederhoffer convinces him to try to get it published and producd by Irving Berlin. The next day, Niederhoffer finds Joplin in Berlin's office, crouched over the blood-soaked body of a young man. He hustles his teacher away, but they are seen leaving the building. Then Berlin denies receiving Joplin's play, Niederhoffer breaks cover and hires a hit man, and Niederhoffer's girlfriend, Birdie, is kidnapped. Can Joplin's original publisher John Stark and his daughter Nell clear the musician of charges? The King of Ragtime is second in Larry Karp's Ragtime Mysteries series, following The Ragtime Kid. Karp lives and writes in Seattle. www.larrykarp.com