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 ...
This may be THE BEST POLICE PROCEDURAL EVER WRITTEN. Stuart Kaminsky flies under the radar compared to other mystery writers even though he has received his peers highest accolades and awards. His experiences: growing up in gritty Chicago; serving as a medic in the Army; on the Northwestern Uni...
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...
Koko the Clown doesn’t appear in this opening salvo in a mystery series from Stuart M. Kaminsky, a short series following a “process server” named Lew Fonesca that was scribed a decade before Kaminsky died. My favorite series by Kaminsky is his light-hearted one featuring Toby Peters – ‘30s and ‘...
Sometimes audios work for me sometimes, not so much. Depends on how much and where I drive that particular week. With that said, I wasn't paying as much attention as I would have been had I been driving on a long straight stretch of road. We do have such roads in north Florida just not where ...
This is the fifth Porfiry Rostnikov novel I've read, but it is actually the third in the series. And what a striking difference the Rostnikov here is from the other stories. Here Porfiry is a bitter, and almost depressed old man. His attempts at blackmailing the KGB into letting him and his Je...
This is the first book that I've read by Stuart M. Kaminsky. I don't typically read detective novels, but I had this book (I have no idea where I got it from!) and decided to give it a try. I started it yesterday and finished it this afternoon. Suffice it to say, it was definitely a page turne...
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-...
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 ...
As readers of my reviews most certainly realize, I read and enjoy books from many different genres. However, if I had to choose just one type of book, there's no question that the mystery would be my choice. A talented mystery writer must demonstrate a deep and nuanced understanding of human natu...
10/20/07TITLE/AUTHOR: LIEBERMAN'S FOLLY by Stuart KaminskyRATING: 4.5/B+GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Mystery/1991/216 pgsSERIES/STAND ALONE: 1st in the Abe Lieberman/Bill Hanrahan series TIME/PLACE: 1990's/ChicagoCHARACTERS: Abe Lieberman "rabbi" & Bill Hanrahan "priest" -- police detectives FIR...
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...
-#2 of the Abe Lieberman series- The only reason I would continue to read this series is because I really like the characters and I think the author does a great job developing them. The story line in this one was not very satisfying, however. The story is about a cop who shoots his wife and he...
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 ...
I have never particularly cared for mysteries, especially murder mysteries. Stuart Kaminsky and Dorothy Sayers have changed my mind. I didn't think it was possible for a mystery author to philosophize about life and death, evil and good, as well as write an intriguing, twisting plot... Well, that...
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...
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 ...
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...
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 ...