Toby Peters
Created by Stuart Kaminsky

Max Allan Collins often touts his NATE HELLER as the first historical private detective series but Stuart Kaminsky's 1940's Hollywood eye TOBY PETERS certainly preceded him. Stuart's been cranking out books in this series for over twenty years now, and he doesn't seem to be slowing down. Collins' blood-soaked tales of gangsters and conspiracies have certainly left their mark, but Kaminsky's easy blend of nostalgia, Hollywood trivia and detective fiction goes down quite well.

Toby (né Pevsner) and his older brother Phil grew up in Glendale, California. They both worked in their pop's grocery store, and they both grew up to become cops. But somewhere along the line, their paths diverged. Phil stayed with the cops, got married, got promoted, got kids, etc. Toby got into trouble. He got canned, got married, got divorced, got a job as security guard at Warner Brothers, got the boot by Jack Warner himself after Toby broke the arm of some cowboy star who "made the mistake of thinking he was as tough in person as on the screen". Down on his luck, running out of options, toby set up shop as a private eye, not particularly fussy about the kind of cases he takes.

The books work well as good old-fashioned, b-movie entertainment. Not too heavy, straight-forward plots, full of colourful characters, who pop in and out of the series. You can just picture character actors playing these roles. Toby still carries a flame for Ann, his ex-wife; but has a thing for Carmen, a waitress Brother Phil-Homicide cop, Wiltshire Police district; whose favorite means of dealing with Toby is slapping him around; Mrs. Plaut, Toby's deaf landlady who calls him Mr. Peelers; Jeremy, the sensitive, muscle-bound poet/janitor and former professional wrestler; Gunther, the multi-lingual midget, translator, and Toby's best friend; and Sheldon Minck, cigar-chomping, alcoholic, nearly-blind, incompetent, grubby dentist/oral surgeon who shares an office with Toby.

The whole series reeks of popcorn. If you love old movies, this series is a blast from the past!

Stuart Kaminsky comes by his love of old films honestly. As well as a fan, he's a professor of film, and has written screenplays, and books on film theory and criticism. Besides Toby's adventures, he alsowrites a series about a Soviet Police Inspector, two original Rockford Files novels, and is currently working out the details of a new character, Sarasota, Florida P.I. Lew Fonesca.

TRIVIA

• Sara Paretsky dedicated the first V.I. Warshawski book to Kaminsky, which is kinda cool.

UNDER OATH

• "Kaminsky has such a good time writing, and he so loves the period, that the reader is swept along willy-nilly."
  (New York Times Book Review)
  .
• "Makes the totally wacky possible.... Peters [is] an unblemished delight."
  (Washington Post)

NOVELS

• Bullet for a Star (1977; Errol Flynn). Buy this book
• Murder on the Yellow Brick Road (1977; Judy Garland). Buy this book
• You Bet Your Life (1978; Marx Brothers). Buy this book
• The Howard Hughes Affair (1979; Howard Hughes). Buy this book
• Never Cross a Vampire (1980; Bela Lugosi). Buy this book
• High Midnight (1981; Gary Cooper). Buy this book
• Catch a Falling Clown (1982; Emmett Kelly). Buy this book
• He Done Her Wrong (1983; Mae West). Buy this book
• The Fala Factor (1984; Elanor Roosevelt). Buy this book
• Down for the Count (1985; Joe Louis). Buy this book
• The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance (1986; John Wayne). Buy this book
• Smart Moves (1986; Albert Einstein, Paul Robeson). Buy this book
• Think Fast, Mr. Peters (Peter Lorre). Buy this book
• Buried Caesars (1989; General MacArthur). Buy this book
• Poor Butterfly (1990; Leopold Stokowski). Buy this book
• The Melting Clock (1991; Salvador Dali). Buy this book
• The Devil Met a Lady (1993; Bette Davis). Buy this book
• Tomorrow Is Another Day (1995; Clark Gable). Buy this book
• Dancing in the Dark (1996; Fred Astaire). Buy this book
• A Fatal Glass of Beer (1997; W.C. Fields). Buy this book
• A Few Minutes Past Midnight (2001; Charlie Chaplin)
• To Catch a Spy (2002; Cary Grant)...Buy this book
• Mildred Pierced (2003, Joan Crawford)...Buy this book
• Now You See It (2004; Harry Blackstone). Buy this book

SHORT STORIES

• "The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance (1984, The Eyes Have It)
• "Busted Blossoms" (1986, Mean Streets)
• "Long Odds" (2002, Murder on the Ropes)

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Brian Aronson and Gene for keeping their eyes "peeled."