The first in a mystery series set in 1940s Hollywood, where a hard-boiled private eye helps a cast of real-life stars: Nostalgic fun (Publishers Weekly).
Hollywood, 1940: It's been four years since security guard Toby Peters got fired from the Warner Brothers lot for breaking a screen cowboy's arm.
Since then he's scratched out a living as a private detective--missing persons and bodyguard work mostly--but now his old friends, the Warners, have a job for him.
Someone has mailed the studio a picture of Errol Flynn caught in a compromising position with an underage woman.
Although Flynn insists it's a fake, the studio is taking no chances.
Peters is to deliver the blackmailer five thousand dollars and return with the photo negative.
It should be simple, but Flynn, a swashbuckler on and off the screen, has a way of making things complicated.
Soon it's up to Peters to clear Flynn's name, following a twisted trail that surprisingly leads to the set of The Maltese Falcon, involving Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet.
As real-life PI Toby Peters meets Bogie's Sam Spade, he doesn't fall prey to being star-struck.
But he may still fall prey to a killer.
If you like your mysteries Sam Spade tough, with tongue in cheek and a touch of the theatrical, then the Toby Peters series is just your ticket.
--Houston Chronicle About the Author: Stuart M.
Kaminsky (1934-2009) was one of the most prolific crime fiction authors of the last four decades.
Born in Chicago, he spent his youth immersed in pulp fiction and classic cinema--two forms of popular entertainment which he would make his life's work.
After college and a stint in the army, Kaminsky wrote film criticism and biographies of the great actors and directors of Hollywood's Golden Age.
In 1977, when a planned biography of Charlton Heston fell through, Kaminsky wrote Bullet for a Star, his first Toby Peters novel, beginning a fiction career that would last the rest of his life.
Kaminsky penned twenty-four nove.
| Stars | Nostalgic fun (publishers |
|---|---|
| Hollywood, 1940 | Its been four years since security guard |
| Author | Stuart |
