Larry Karp has presented for us beautifully many tales that many of us collectors go through regularly. While I consider myself an advanced collector, I still find that there is a lot to learn about collecting, and about musical boxes themselves. Well done, Larry.

This is a perfectly wonderful book filled with life and integrity. Larry Karp writes extrmely well and is able to convey his passion for music box collecting in a way that even noncollectors such as I can find extremely thrilling. How great that the book is now available in reprint. Anyone who is entertained by Dr. Karp's fiction--along with those who are not yet acquainted--will love this book. The book is simply for readers and humans.

I feel like I'm an old friend of Thomas Purdue and his friends. In his third mystery novel, Larry once again has provided us with a great who-dun-it, all the while throwing us bits of information about the world of music box collecting and repair.

With lovable, intelligent, interesting and eccentric characters, and the brilliant wit that only author Karp, a master at words, can write, this intriguing mystery dances through the streets of New York against a background of music, murder, and mayhem. Dr. Purdue, his friends, and his ingenious ways of solving the music box murders make Larry Karp's book a gem with a plot that twists and turns to a surprising ending. The book is a winner, a page-turner, and I eagerly await the next Thomas Purdue mystery.

I see that other reviewers have summarized the plot of this latest Thomas Purdue music box mystery, so I won't go over that ground again. I'll just tell you that if you like real mysteries, ones that you can't figure out as you go along, you'll like this book. And if you like wit and intelligence in your mystery novels, you'll like this book. And if you're a student of the human condition, interested in what makes people tick, you'll like this book. In fact, if you've read the previous two books featuring Dr. Purdue, you'll LOVE this book. I especially liked seeing new facets of characters I'd met before. The ending has a twist that had me on the edge of my seat, and now I can't wait for the next one! Do yourself a favor and get this book!

Whodunit and Music Box Lovers will enjoy this mystery. It's brimming with Collector information.

Dr. Thomas Prude thinks he made a fabulous deal on a rare music box. What he really gets is trouble when he learns he has a dead collector's stolen music box. After a visit to the widow of the late collector, Dr. Thomas is given some pictures... racy pictures. These will lead him into a mystery full of intrigue, sex and murder. When you read this book you will follow Dr. Thomas from Manhattan to London and through a mystery you won't forget.

I had to laugh sometimes at Dr. Thomas's humor - he sounds like a guy who could get a way with crowning a lady with a ball peen hammer. I also enjoyed following his relationship with his wife, especially in the last chapter....

I stumbled upon the Thomas Purdue mysteries quite by accident. I'm a collector of music boxes myself and when I found a novel based on a collector, I jumped at the chance.

Larry has a unique talent. He has collected musical boxes long before it was fashionable, and he'll be still collecting them long after they are out of fashion. He also is an excellent writer and flows his story smoothly, dripping out clues together with his love for music boxes.

The hero of the story, Thomas Purdue is a loveable rogue. The kind of guy that you'd love to have as a friend, but who constantly sticks his nose where it doesn't belong.

Sometimes a first book is so truly marvelous, succeeding in every way possible, the reader wants to jump up and down for joy! Such was my feeling after reading this marvelous book. There is music in it, on nearly every page, but yet it isn't really about music. Rather it is the world of collectibles: usually antique, they're mostly musical, mechanical, automatons, etc.

Dr. Thomas Purdue, a neurosurgeon in Manhattan, not only collects such things, he appreciates their existence, even if in the collection of someone not necessarily his friend. The day after a party at the home of a wealthy fellow-collector, Purdue is awakened by a phone call advising him that the fellow-collector was murdered shortly after the party's break-up. Soon thereafter, he receives another phone call, alerting him to the existence of a music box for which he has been longing. The box is at an antique shop in Manhattan, and it doesn't take long to for him to realize that it was the property of the dead millionaire.

Thus begins this lively, fast-paced, wonderfully well-written story, peopled with an unusual cast of primary and secondary characters, and that travels easily from the various boroughs of New York City to London and back again.

The author has deservedly won an award from the Musical Box Society for other writings about the field of mechanical music. His knowledge of these unique and esoteric creations is apparent on every page, as is his knowledge of Manhattan (especially) and people in general. Many of the characters in this book are reminiscent of those in the pages of works by Damon Runyon. For an unusual visit to a world many of us will never experience, this book is most satisfactory. I loved it, and am impatient for the next one.

Dr. Larry Karp certainly can write! In his Thomas Purdue series he manages to keep you entertained and guessing to the end and at the same time manages to introduce you to the highly competetive world of antique collecting.

I'm a fairly advanced collector myself but I've always got more that I can learn in this subject and I'm amazed but I always find something new in this series. It's a definate keeper.

Scamming the Birdman is a wonderful book. It's funny, it's well-written, and it's truely creative in its plot and structure.

Dr. Larry Purdue is the scam artist. The novel opens with his scam of his friend Hugh Curtis...and the joke includes us as readers. The gun doesn't fire, the bad guy isn't killed, and none of us watch the well-deserved revenge we all so badly wanted.

But Dr. Purdue is gonna get him! He is gonna make the Birdman twist in the wind. He sets an elaborate plot into motion, and it works! Throughout the novel the Birdman sinks deeper and deeper into punishment, and the good guys win and win and win.

So where's the suspense, you ask? Well, for one thing we learn to have faith in Purdue's ability to anticipate the problems. For another, his partnership with his wife Sarah saves the whole intricate design from disaster, despite their unconventional marriage arrangements.

And for the third, we find that the villan, who is indeed a villan, is not the REAL murderer...this whole giant concoction is designed to bring to justice the true 'bad guy', and in the last few pages, we open our eyes in surprise and shock. We were scammed!

For whatever reason, all kinds of wonderful explanatory words kept running through my mind while reading this book. Rowdy, raucous, rascally. Rambunctious. Romp. Revenge. Even romance. Oh, there were a few others, most notably 'politically incorrect'. Or should that be 'uncorrect'? Whichever, it most certainly is that, too. However, it is also one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time.

Some of the people we encounter in our daily lives are so not-at-all-nice, it's truly enjoyable to see them brought down a few pegs. One could almost--almost, but not quite--feel sorry for Vincent LoPriore when he lands in the exceptional world of Thomas Purdue. Of course, had not Vinny (known as the Birdman because of his fondness for collecting musical automata featuring birds) perpetrated a gigantic fraud against one of Purdue's fellow collectors and long-time friends, Hugh Curtis, Vinny would not have placed himself in jeopardy. Trust me, this is not the tv version of jeopardy, either. (Aside here: this would make a WONDERFUL movie, however, being a very visual book. It virtually screens itself in the mind's eye of the reader.)

Another 'R' word is Runyon, as in the great Damon and his truly unforgettable characters. One might think that Larry Karp studied at the feet of Runyon, given his ability to create the same kind of memorable personages to tramp so blithely through the pages of his novels. Just the names alone go trippingly off the tongue, creating a smile on the reader's face: Broadway Schwartz, Big Al, Frank the Crank, Cleveland Gackle (his real name!), Mick the Dick and Soapy Sandy, plus Nozey Espinoza and Fenton Dassidario (another real moniker). And not least, two extraordinary women with ordinary names: Edna Reynolds and Sarah Purdue.

This is a rare adventure caper, sometimes raw, sometimes rollicking, and always realistic. At least I think it is that latter, for I certainly have no exposure whatever to the world of Thomas Purdue, but I'm grateful to Larry Karp for letting me visit it occasionally.

Scamming the Birdman is a rara avis, indeed. You won't be sorry if it comes into your sights, unless of course, you don't focus in on it. Enjoy!

One of the reviewers of the novel said that it was "One of those old-fashioned mysteries." Well, that is true enough. When was this book written -- in the '80s? It's as if the author pulled an unfinished manuscript off the shelf and touched it up. A medical doctor without a cell phone? A medical doctor who rushes in to the scene of a murder and moves the victim? It's almost as if he has no common sense. I did like the information about the music boxes but found it rather strange how many people knew each other, particularly the ones in London. Oh, well, it is make-believe. I enjoyed the interaction between Sarah and Thomas. Not a bad novel, just could be better.

A wise cracking medical doctor who's enchanted, enamored and nearly obsessed with music boxes find himself involved in the middle of a murder mystery he can't possibly resist. What a delightful way for author Karp to introduce us to a cast of colorful characters and introduce readers to an appreciation of antique music boxes.

There's three Thomas Purdue mysteries out now with more on the way and Karp starts his series out in fine form. This one reads fast, is packed with wit, dry humor, delightful twists, some risque' developments and delivers a delightfully choreographed Agatha Christie kind of ending.

There's a self confidence to Larry Karp's prose and his dialogue crackles with a brightness that's refreshing, funny and clear.

If you like who-done-it mysteries you'll want to get a copy of this delightful book right away.

Christopher J. Jarmick is the co-Author of the mystery-thriller, The Glass Cocoon (with Serena F. Holder).

Collectors of antique music boxes are being murdered. Is it just for the rigid notation box that keeps disappearing? This story starts and ends in New York but we also get a trip to London as the narrator tries to discover who is killing his colleagues. I enjoyed the narrator of the Music Box Murders. He was amusing without being silly. He didn't get himself into situtations that were dangerous or just plain stupid. He took a few chances, but they were more realistic then in some books. The information about the music boxes was interesting. I knew little about the topic before reading the book. Since the author is a collector I assume the information is accurate. I think this book would appeal to people who like "cozies". I look forward to reading the next book in the series.