"Stuart M.kaminsky's "Toby Peters" series of novels" Topic

This is mostly taken from an article by J Kingston Pierce with some additions and changes by me:

Kaminsky first became a published novelist in 1977, with the release of "Bullet for a Star". A lighthearted twist on classic, hard-boiled American detective fiction, Bullet introduced Toby Peters, a disheveled, broken nosed former security officer with Warner Brothers Studio, who'd been fired in 1936 (after "breaking the arm of a Western star who had made the mistake of thinking he was as tough in person as he was on the screen"), and subsequently hung out his shingle as the most low-rent of private eyes. This job change, however, didn't greatly alter his clientele. He's continued to work for early 1940s celebrities, both Hollywood denizens and other well known people of the period like General Douglas MacArthur and Dashiell Hammett. In "Bullet for a Star", the star in question is swashbuckling hero Errol Flynn, who hires Toby to retrieve a compromising photo and, incidentally, keep him safe from any flying lead. The subsequent 21 installments of this series have found Toby working on behalf of notables as varied as the Marx Brothers, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi, WC Fields, Howard Hughes, Joe Louis, Fred Astaire and Cary Grant.

I've read almost all of the novels. Some of my favorites, like "A Fatal Glass of Beer" featuring a road trip with Peters and WC Fields in search of a criminal who is posing as Fields and empying all of his hidden bank accounts, are extremely funny and full of action and period flavor. If you intend to try the series I suggest that you start with "Bullet For a Star" and continue with "Murder on the Yellow Brick Road" as some characters are introduced early in the novels who become mainstays of the series.

I am a Kaminsky fan. Better than classic noir.

>>Have you read any of his other stuff?<<

Of the 24 "Toby Peters" novels I've read 18. Right now i'm in the middle of "Catch a Falling Clown" that includes both Emmett Kelly and Alfred Hitchcock. It's the 7th in the series. I've been reading them in sequence wherever possible, but some of the novels are harder to find than others, so I read 'em when I find 'em. I haven't read any of his other series.

I've yet to read any of the Toby Peters books. I have read the first of the Lew Fonesca novels, "Revenge". It's a nicely constructed PI story set in Sarasota in the present day. I'd give it an A-. I'll read more.

>>I've yet to read any of the Toby Peters books<<

Howard, take my word for it, the "Toby Peters" novels will be right up your alley.

I just picked up "A Fatal Glass of Beer" from my local library, which has a huge shelf of Kaminsky. "Bullet for a Star" was out.

>>I just picked up "A Fatal Glass of Beer" from my local library, which has a huge shelf of Kaminsky. "Bullet for a Star" was out.<<

I thought he caught WC Fields' character very well. A combination of what we saw on screen and what we know about him personally. Just as a little history, the "little person" named Gunther has been a continuing character since "Murder on the Yellow Brick Road". I hope you enjoy the novel as much as I did. (-: