STUART KAMINSKY Creator of Toby (Tobias Pevsner) Peters Hollywood Detective

	Stuart M. Kaminsky is the prolific, Edgar-winning aurthor of more than seventy novels, including ongoing series featuring Russian policeman Porfiry Rostnikov, Chicago cop Abe Lieberman, Jim Rockford of TV's Rockford Files, Florida P.I. Lew Fonesca, and 1940's Hollywood slueth Toby Peters. Kaminsky won the 1989 Edgar Allan Poe Award for the Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov novel A Cold Red Sunrise, the 1991 Shamus Award for the Toby Peters novel Poor Butterfly, as well as the 1990 Prix du Roman d'Aventures from France. He also found time to be a past president of the Mystery Writers of America.
In the Toby Peters novels, he 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. 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. Peepers; 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.
	Kaminsky was one of the first writers to turn to period-piece PIs with his Toby Peters series. Much like the Nate Heller series from Max Allan Collins, who often touts his as the first historical private detective series, Kaminsky's Peters certainly preceded him. In these books Toby meets up with actual historical figures - in this case, from Hollywood. He's run into everyone from Mae West (He Done Her Wrong) to John Wayne (the wonderfully titled The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance) as he works the same beat that Robert Leslie Bellem's Dan Turner walked. Stuart's been cranking out books in this series for over twenty years. Kaminsky's easy blend of nostalgia, Hollywood trivia and detective fiction is easy to read. 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. The books work well as good old-fashioned, b-movie entertainment. Not too heavy, straight-forward plots, full of colorful characters, who pop in and out of the series. You can just picture character actors playing these roles. If you love old movies, this series is a blast from the past.

Toby Peters Novels

Bullet for a Star Errol Flynn © 1977	Murder on the Yellow Brick Road Judy Garland © 1977	You Bet Your Life The Marx Brothers © 1978
The Howard Hughes Affair Howard Hughes © 1979	Never Cross a Vampire Bela Lugosi © 1980	High Midnight Gary Cooper © 1981
Catch a Falling Clown Emmett Kelly © 1981	He Done Her Wrong Mae West © 1983	The Fala Factor Eleanor Roosevelt © 1984
Down for the Count Joe Louis © 1985	The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance John Wayne © 1986	Smart Moves Albert Einstein © 1986
Think Fast, Mr. Peters Peter Lorre © 1987	Buried Caesars Douglas MacArthur © 1989	Poor Butterfly Leopold Stokowski © 1990
The Melting Clock Salvador Dali © 1991	The Devil Met a Lady Bette Davis © 1993	Tomorrow is Another Day Clark Gable © 1995
Dancing in the Dark Fred Astaire © 1996	A Fatal Glass of Beer W. C. Fields © 1997	A Few Minutes Past Midnight Charlie Chaplin © 2001
To Catch a Spy Cary Grant © 2002	Mildred Pierced Joan Crawford © 2003	Now You See It Harry Blackstone © 2004

Porfiry Rostnikov Novels

Death of a Dissident (a.p.a. Rostnikov's Corpse) © 1981	Black Knight in Red Square © 1983	Red Chameleon © 1985
A Fine Red Rain © 1987	A Cold Red Sunrise © 1987	The Man Who Walked Like a Bear © 1990
Rostnikov's Vacation © 1991	Death of a Russian Priest © 1992	Hard Currency © 1995
Blood and Rubles © 1996	Tarnished Icons © 1997	The Dog Who Bit a Policeman © 1998
Fall of a Cosmonaut © 2000	Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express © 2001	People Who Walk In Darkness © 2008

Abe Lieberman Novels

Lieberman's Folly © 1990	Lieberman's Choice © 1993	Lieberman's Day © 1994
Lieberman's Thief © 1995	Lieberman's Law © 1996	The Big Silence © 2000
Not Quite Kosher © 2002	The Last Dark Place © 2004	Terror Town © 2006
	The Dead Don't Lie © 2007

Lew Fonesca Novels

Vengeance © 1999	Retribution © 2001	Midnight Pass © 2003
Denial © 2005	Always Say Goodbye © 2006	Bright Futures © 2009

James Rockford Novels

The Green Bottle © 1996

Devil on My Doorstep © 1998

CSI: New York Novels

Dead of Winter © 2005

Blood on the Sun © 2006

Deluge © 2007

Kolchak: The Night Stalker Novels

Fever Pitch © 2003

Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Volume 1 © 2004

The Night Stalker Chronicles © 2005

Non-Series Novels

When the Dark Man Calls © 1983

Exersise in Terror © 1985

Biographies

A Biographical Study of the Career of Donald Siegel and an Analysis of His Films © 1972	Don Siegel: Director © 1974	Clint Eastwood © 1974
Ingmar Bergman: Essays in Criticism © 1975	John Huston, Maker of Magic © 1978	Coop: The Life and Legend of Gary Cooper © 1979

Other Nonfiction

American Film Genres © 1974	Basic Filmmaking (with Dana Hodgdon) © 1981	Writing for Television (with Mark Walker) © 1988
American Television Genres (with Jeffrey Mahan) © 1991	Behind the Mysteries (with Laurie Roberts) © 2005	Police Procedure & Investigation (with Lee Lofland) © 2007