Series: Toby Peters
by Author Stuart M. Kaminsky
The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance (1986)
I generally love the Toby Peters mysteries by the late film historian, Stuart Kaminsky. Peters, as former studio guard and private detective (in the Sam Spade mode), consistently becomes involved in mysteries that involve one or more celebrities as potential victims, suspects, and/or allies. The ...
High Midnight (1984)
Buried Caesars (1990)
This is the 14th Toby Peters mystery.This time Toby is trying to retrieve money and confidental papers stolen from General Douglas MacArthur.He teams up with Dashell Hammett.Milestones in this novel are Toby gets his cat, Dash, and Jeremy announces that he and his wife are expecting a baby.Unfort...
The Howard Hughes Affair (2005)
Nice to return to a solidly written story, after another bout with a current author that was left alone by a good editor. Kaminsky does move this one very, very fast. The plot is very good, the mystery great and the characters very well done. As usual, Kaminsky nails the dialogue of the separate ...
He Done Her Wrong (2001)
I didn't care for this too much. He's a born loser & while it was amusing at first, it just got old & too predictable. By the half way mark, I knew what was going to happen too often. I started skipping ahead & didn't miss a thing.On the plus side, the characters were quirky - a lot of old tim...
Never Cross a Vampire (2000)
Originally written in the 1970s and set in the 1940s, this mystery had a very film noir, dark and gritty atmosphere. I liked Toby as a character but I could not follow the murder mystery plot or figure out how he was solving it. I'm not sure if this was because I listened to it on audio and so I ...
The Fala Factor (1984)
It's 1942 and private detective Toby Peters is hired by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to retrieve the President's beloved pooch Fala. Mrs. Roosevelt believes Fala was snatched and a substitute left in his place. It seems a crackpot rival political party is trying to take over the government and ma...
To Catch a Spy (2002)
I know Kaminsky is a MWA Grand Master, but this book was really disappointing. The story takes place in 1944 and involves Cary Grant working as a spy for British Intelligence hunting down Nazis in Los Angeles. OK. Ridiculous. But, my big complaint is that Kaminsky doesn't let a single bit of his ...
Poor Butterfly (1991)
It's always fun to watch Toby Peters interact with the great and famous, and usually end up as poor as he was to start with. This caper has him leaving his familiar Los Angeles haunts to travel to San Francisco at Leopold Stokowski's request. The conductor is helping bring opera back to a long-...
Smart Moves (1987)
Murder on the Yellow Brick Road (2000)
1977, #2 Toby Peters, a rather seedy PI in 1940 Hollywood; satirical/historical PI. With its classic (if not quite classy) PI themes played extremely broadly, lots of cameos without becoming boring or weird/out of context, and nifty plots, this series is lots of fun. Here Toby tries to find out w...
A Few Minutes Past Midnight (2015)
One of the weaker efforts in the Toby Peters' series. Also,sometimes the discrepancies evident from book to book are annoying. The Faraday (Farraday) building where Peters' office is located. Is the building 4,6 or 8 stories high? Is his office on the on the top floor or one floor below?Just how ...