Most Popular Books by Stuart M. Kaminsky

A 1940s Hollywood gumshoe heads to San Francisco to foil a very real phantom of the opera in this “believable and entertaining” mystery (Publishers Weekly). 1942 is a dangerous year to stage Madama Butterfly. Although Puccini’s masterpiece is a perennial favorite of the San Francisco opera crowd, its sympathetic depiction of a Japanese girl causes tension a year after Pearl Harbor. Newspaper editorialists rage against the production, opera buffs picket the theater, and a note appears nailed to the house door, threatening violence against cast and crew. But someone is doing more than making idle threats—a self-styled phantom of the opera. When a workman on the opera house renovation is killed, the maestro, Leopold Stokowski, the conductor who starred in Disney’s Fantasia, calls Hollywood PI Toby Peters to catch a madman. With two days to go before opening night, the attacks are building to a crescendo. As Peters hunts for the phantom, he falls for one of the company starlets. But they must tread lightly, or face a finale far more tragic than anything dreamed of by Puccini. “Hardly a pause separates the frightful, madly comic and nostalgic incidents made believable and entertaining in Kaminsky’s artful handling” (Publishers Weekly).

Gen. Douglas MacArthur enlists the help of a discreet private detective in “one of the sprightliest of the [Toby Peters] series” (Time). It’s September 1942, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur believes he’s got what it takes to win the war in the Pacific—but he’s got a personal problem to take care of first. An aide has run off with his war chest, his donor list, and a handful of embarrassing private letters: a haul that would make the general a perfect target for blackmail and derail the post-war presidential run he’s planning. This is one battle he can’t afford to lose. So the general enlists Det. Toby Peters, who has built a reputation for discretion among Hollywood’s elite, not to mention the White House. Forming a surprising alliance with former Pinkerton agent and legendary crime novelist, Dashiell Hammett, Peters follows the trail to Angel Springs, California, and a mysterious millionaire who’s definitely no angel. In protecting the general from blackmail, Peters hopes to avoid paying the ultimate price himself. Edgar Award winner Stuart M. Kaminsky “has a delightfully original mind enriching—rather than just borrowing from—an old literary form” (Los Angeles Times).

With his Chicago cops, Edgar Award winner “Kaminsky is hard to beat for a thoughtful, well-plotted, well-written mystery” (The Washington Post Book World). Most days, the counters at Maish’s Deli on Chicago’s North Side are crowded with elderly Jewish men who trade stories and crack wise. But today, the mood at Maish’s is grim. Someone has vandalized the local temple—the fifth in a row—and stolen a priceless Torah, and only Abe Lieberman can set things right. A veteran cop whose low-key attitude and sardonic humor conceal an intense commitment to justice, Lieberman is taking the break-in very personally—the synagogue’s president just happens to be his wife. With the help of his lapsed Catholic partner, Bill Hanrahan, Lieberman must straddle the roles of detective and diplomat, tracking down the thugs who defaced the temples while at the same time brokering peace between the North Side’s warring factions before they tear the city apart. Because when it comes to the law, the cop they call “Rabbi” understands that while he may work for the Chicago police department, he also serves a higher authority. Abe Lieberman is “smart, tough, empathetic, and just a tad crazy when circumstances require.” And Lieberman’s Law “is a wonderfully rich cop novel” (Booklist).

Stuart Kaminsky takes the readers into the personal lives and homes of well-known contemporary mystery writers.

Carl Zwick is an aging Chicago Cubs baseball player. Sometimes he feels like he''s spent his life hitting into double plays, but he''s finally gotten onto the right track. Then tragedy strikes him out. Anita Mills is a pretty single black mother just trying to get by. A random act of brutality in one of Chicago''s rougher neighborhoods permanently ends her struggle. Richard Allen Smith walks the streets of ChiTown saying God has sent him. He has an unusual, rather nasty way of getting converts to see the light. What do these people have in common? Nothing, it would seem, except they are all part of Detective Abe Lieberman''s very long day. Lieberman, a sad, baggy-eyed spaniel of a man with the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon is trying his best to make his beloved Chicago a better place. But when Lieberman and his partner, Bill Hanrahan, encounter these three very different situations they are find that there are ties that bind and ties that can cut a man''s heart out. Abe Lieberman faces a Gordian knot that he must somehow untangle—and if he makes a mistake, someone very near to him could die. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Kaminsky''s series character Toby Peters appears with John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Lewis Valance and D.W. Griffith in Busted Blossoms. Hidden finds a determined detective searching for the truth when a teenage boy is suspected of savagely killing his family. In Drop Number One, who can tell who is crazy and who is not when three men break out of an insane asylum?

In this book, Kaminsky and other scholars use the sophisticated critical tools of contemporary literary and film analysis to examine popular American television genres. Critical approaches ranging from historical to anthropological to structural and psychoanalytic are clearly presented and then used to analyze a variety of shows including soap operas, police dramas, game shows, and news programs. Throughout the book the authors explore the ways in ehich the genres of popular television regularly viewed by millions are significant on a cultural and social level. These explorations reveal that popular television can be understood as a rich and complex art form. This book will provide the student with a detailed introduction to the art of television criticism.

A PI performs some fancy footwork to protect Fred Astaire as “Edgar winner Kaminsky effortlessly choreographs Hollywood history . . . and dirty doings” (Publishers Weekly). Sometimes fools must step in where Fred Astaire fears to tap. Luna Martin, the moll of a well-known Los Angeles gangster nicknamed “Fingers” (because he likes to cut them off), has demanded dance lessons from Hollywood’s finest hoofer—and whatever Luna wants, Luna gets. To sidestep the flirtations of the lead-footed lady, Astaire hires private investigator Toby Peters to pose as a dance instructor and take over the lessons. But when someone cuts in and cuts Luna’s throat, the grieving gangster makes Peters an offer he can’t refuse: Find the killer—or go from having two left feet to one foot in the grave. Now, instead of punishing the parquet, the silver screen’s most famous song-and-dance man is pounding the pavement with his new partner—a rumpled, middle-aged gumshoe who just wants to live to shuffle through another day . . .

A hard-boiled Hollywood PI has to work without a net to save Emmett Kelly from a killer who’s not clowning around: “Nostalgic fun” (Publishers Weekly). In February 1942, Californians may be living in fear of a Japanese attack, but the show must go on. The circus is in town—unfortunately so is a killer saboteur who’s targeting the star attractions. Private detective Toby Peters is no stranger to going undercover, but this is the first time his disguise will include a red nose. The killer has already electrocuted an elephant, and hobo clown Emmett Kelly has had a close brush with death. The second-rate circus in this sleepy coastal town seems like another world from Peters’s usual Hollywood beat, but of all people, Alfred Hitchcock, the director of Suspicion, is under suspicion. With the investigation on the verge of becoming a three-ring circus, it’s up to Toby Peters to cage the killer before anyone else meets a bad end under the big top. Edgar Award winner Stuart M. Kaminsky’s “Toby Peters series [is] a delight . . . Written with more than a dash of humor” and this big-top murder mystery is a “fun, lightweight book for all mystery fans” (Library Journal).

A classic Rockford case involves retrieving stolen property, locating a cat for an eccentric, wealthy old lady, thugs out to rearrange Rockford''s anatomy, and a hunt that turns deadly when a beautiful woman in search of Hollywood fame turns up missing.

An Edgar Award–winning author steals the show again in “a beautifully calibrated mix of wit, suspense, and quiet honesty” (The Washington Post Book World). It should have been an easy score—a suburban house on a quiet cul-de-sac, with the owners scheduled to be gone all night. But career burglar George Patniks has chosen the wrong time to go breaking and entering, because tonight Harvey Rozier will murder his wife. Patniks is the only witness to the brutal killing, but of course he can’t go to the police. Wise, world-weary Homicide Det. Abe Lieberman has been lied to a lot in his long career on the Chicago police force. Rozier’s claim of a robbery-gone-wrong just doesn’t add up, but Lieberman needs hard evidence to confirm his gut instinct. Along with his partner, Bill Hanrahan, Lieberman is looking for a break—and he just might get one . . . if the killer doesn’t catch the thief first. “Outstanding . . . Another stellar performance, alight with menace and compassion.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A Florida process server trying to pick up the pieces of his life looks into a hit-and-run mystery in this “compelling” crime novel by the Edgar Award winner (Kirkus Reviews). Lew Fonesca is a man who does things for people. He makes small problems go away and tries to keep the larger ones from landing his clients in jail. He finds deadbeats and errant spouses, and generally keeps the populace of Sarasota on the up and up. Now Lew is faced with one case that will try his patience . . . and another that may break his heart. The first involves an elderly woman who swears she’s witnessed a murder in her old age home despite the fact that everyone she tells her story to—her family, the hospital staff, and finally the cops—tell her that it just couldn’t have happened. The other has Lew trying to identify a hit-and-run driver who killed a fourteen-year-old boy, and dredges up some very painful memories. As Lew begins to dig deeper into both cases he finds that they’re tied together in ways he can’t hope to untangle. And when someone tries to run him down, he knows he’s getting close to some nasty home truths . . . Praise for the Lew Fonesca series “A psychologically acute and fast-moving crime series.” —Booklist “Kaminsky is such a pro that the pages fly by, and even though Lew is often such a sad sack, it’s hard not to root for him.” —Chicago Tribune “Grabs readers and takes them on a memorably tumultuous ride.” —Publishers Weekly

“A page-turning romp” from the Edgar Award–winning author featuring a nutty dentist, a killer crossbow, and Joan Crawford in 1940s Hollywood (Booklist, starred review). Mildred Minck is an unremarkable woman—until one tragic night in June 1944 when she becomes the first citizen of Los Angeles to be murdered by crossbow. The prime suspect is her husband, dentist Sheldon Minck, who’s found standing over her body with the weapon in hand, raving that only Joan Crawford can identify the killer. It seems like a natural insanity defense, but Sheldon wants his neighbor, private investigator Toby Peters, to prove his innocence. The dentist is telling the truth about one thing: Joan Crawford was there. The steely silver screen beauty is in the middle of a comeback, about to star in a film noir based on a James M. Cain novel, and insists Peters keep her name out of the papers. In exchange, the glamorous eyewitness points the sleuth toward the Survivors of the Future, a band of crackpot survivalists that the dentist was hoping to join. Sheldon’s new friends want him sprung, but only because they want him dead . . . With its “irresistible” title, Edgar Award winner Stuart M. Kaminsky’s penultimate Toby Peters mystery shines a spotlight on the legendary screen diva as well as one of the favorite supporting characters of the series (The Washington Post).

PI and process-server Lew Fonesca returns in a “nail-biting missing-persons case” from the Edgar Award–winning author of Vengeance (Booklist). Stuart M. Kaminsky, the veteran author of more than forty novels and the creator of such wonderful characters as Abe Lieberman, Toby Peters, and Inspector Rostnikov, has created a new PI: Lew Fonesca, a world-weary guy who got in a car and just started driving after his wife died and wound up in front of a Dairy Queen in Sarasota, Florida. He now makes his way amid bail jumpers and lost wives, people who want to be found and those who will do anything to stay under their rock. He spends his days solving cases both big and small and trying to get by, while attempting to figure out how to make the rest of his life make sense. Retribution not only picks up where the first novel in the series, Vengeance, left off, but raises the bar big-time. Lew has solved his share of cases, and most of them—to his pride—have wound up having happy endings; in Vengeance, he saved a young runaway who has had a childhood nobody should ever have, and she finally seems to be turning her life around. But when she becomes involved with a reclusive bestselling author and several valuable manuscripts disappear, Lew knows that young Melanie is in way over her head. And if he doesn’t act fast, not only could a few reputations get tarnished—the bodies might start piling up.

New York is known as the city that never sleeps. On its constantly hustling, bustling streets crime never sleeps either; and nor do the ever-vigilant crime-fighters who strive to solve its murder cases and bring perpetrators to justice using the very latest in forensic investigative techniques. Now, high-tech science comes to the Big Apple as Detective Mack Taylor (Sinise) and his partner, Detective Stella Bonasera (Kanakaredes), lead a team of dedicated, case-cracking experts in the gritty, kinetic city. In DELUGE, six straight days of heavy spring rain threaten to cripple New York. Already several people have been electrocuted by fallen power lines and flooding on some subway tracks has stopped trains. In the midst of all this Mack and his colleagues have no less than three pressing cases to solve: a series of grisly murders in which the victims all seem to have an unusual connection; the puzzling death of a teacher on the upper west side and the suspicious collapse of an entire building – which puts one of the team in deadly danger.

In a fun series with “shades of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett,” a 1940s PI must find out who’s gunning for Peter Lorre (TheSan Diego Union-Tribune). Scaly-voiced and bug-eyed actor Peter Lorre has become one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood, especially after appearing in the Sam Spade crime drama, The Maltese Falcon, last year. Yet Hollywood PI Toby Peters still has to contend with his landlady believing the star of Think Fast, Mr. Moto, is Japanese. Whether playing an Asian detective or a weaselly villain, one role Lorre will probably never get is romantic lead—except apparently in real life. Because the distraught dentist who shares offices with Peters insists his wife has run off with Peter Lorre and begs the detective to find her. As it turns out, the boyfriend in question is a Peter Lorre impersonator—perhaps an even more bizarre romantic choice. But by the time Peters finds him, the mimic is doing a terrific imitation of a corpse. The bullet was meant for the real Lorre, who has just become the gumshoe’s client—whether he likes it or not. “If you like your mysteries Sam Spade tough, with tongue-in-cheek and a touch of the theatrical, then the Toby Peters series is just your ticket.” —Houston Chronicle

A thrilling original novel based on the television series CSI: New York! Detective Mac Taylor is a dedicated and driven crime-scene investigator who believes that everything is connected and everyone has a story. He and his partner, Detective Stella Bonasera, lead a team of experts through the gritty and kinetic world of New York City. These skilled investigators, who see New York in a unique light, follow the evidence as they piece together clues and eliminate doubt to ultimately crack their cases. The body of a middle-aged man is found in the elevator of a ritzy doorman building on the Upper East Side. Mac Taylor and Aiden Burn''s initial investigation yields no bullets, no DNA evidence, and no motive. Could this be the perfect crime? Meanwhile, only a few blocks away, Stella Bonasera and Danny Messer investigate the murder of a witness being held in protective custody. The law enforcement officers on duty swear that the victim spent the night in a locked hotel room—only to be found dead in the morning. From the heart of midtown to the outer boroughs, the New York CSI team must piece together the evidence and solve two puzzling crimes in the city that never sleeps.

This Chicago cop drama is “jam-packed with the stuff of good crime fiction—character, style, place, recognizable human conflict” (The Washington Post). When the wife of a mob witness is killed and his teenage son is kidnapped, the ransom isn’t cash—it’s his life. The dead can’t testify. If the witness kills himself, the mob will let his son live. Now veteran cops Abe Lieberman and Bill Hanrahan need to protect their witness from himself while they turn Chicago’s gangland upside down to save the kid. It doesn’t help that Hanrahan is newly sober in AA, battling drink urges and the guilt of recently losing another informant. Lieberman has seen his partner at his worst with the booze and always had his back. But now both their backs are against the wall, and they’ll need to rely on each other and make some hard choices to set this one right. Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America and Edgar Award Winner Stuart M. Kaminsky “has the pro’s knack of combining quirky people, succinct descriptions, an eye for detail, and dark humor to produce entertainment at its best” (Chicago Sun-Times).

In this “marvelously entertaining” mystery, a hard-boiled Hollywood private eye investigates a murdered Munchkin on the set of The Wizard of Oz (Newsday). A year after The Wizard of Oz’s smash success, the yellow brick road is crumbling. The famous sets have been left standing on a soundstage in the depths of the MGM back lot in case the studio greenlights a sequel. But that doesn’t explain what Judy Garland is doing there—or why she finds a Munchkin in full costume, lying facedown with a knife buried in his back. To avoid even a whiff of scandal and protect Judy’s wholesome image, the studio boss hires Toby Peters, a Hollywood private detective with a reputation for discretion. But as Peters quickly learns, the real threat to Miss Garland isn’t the tabloids—it’s the psychopathic killer who stalks the back lot and plans to kill the young actress next. In addition to the murder mystery swirling around Judy Garland, the second Toby Peters novel features cameos from “Clark Gable and Raymond Chandler [who] give an assist in this imaginative mystery recreated from yesterday’s movie-land” (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland).

From Hollywood’s Golden Age to a rock ’n’ roll tragedy, this pair of detective novels from two award-winning maestros of mystery hits all the right notes. From Edgar Award–winning author Stuart M. Kaminsky, Dancing in the Dark shines a light on the 1940s Los Angeles dancing scene. Paired with Ellery Queen Award–winning author Ed Gorman’s “gripping, amusing, thoughtful and hugely entertaining” The Day the Music Died, these two kooky and delightful mysteries are now available in one volume (Dean Koontz). Dancing in the Dark by Stuart M. Kaminsky: It’s going to take some fancy footwork for hard-boiled Hollywood private detective Toby Peters to get Fred Astaire off the hook. After giving a gangster’s moll dancing lessons, he tires of her making passes at him and hires the famously discreet private investigator to break the news gently. When a killer cuts in and the moll ends up dead, Peters must take the lead in solving the case . . . or face the music himself. The Day the Music Died by Ed Gorman: After his rock ’n’ roll hero, Buddy Holly, dies in a plane crash, young Iowa lawyer and part-time PI Sam McCain just wants to play his records and grieve—until the nephew of an eccentric judge kills himself after his trophy wife is murdered. The police see it as a clear-cut murder-suicide, but Sam wants to know more. But diving into this mystery will get dangerous faster than he can say “bye, bye, Miss American Pie.”

Abe Lieberman is up to his eyeballs in tsurris, the kind of trouble that will drive a man to madness. From tracking a pair of low-rent thieves who stumble into a heist way over their heads to finding out what happened to a man who predicted his own death in a bizarre twist of fate - not to mention planning for a grandson''s bar mitzvah that threatens to send him to the poorhouse....

The first novel in a crime series about “two Chicago cops, one Jewish, one Irish . . . Told with deceptive simplicity [and] a gentle wit” (The Boston Globe). Detectives Abe Lieberman and Bill Hanrahan have been partners a long time—long enough to call each other “Rabbi” and “Father Murphy.” Lieberman is sixty, a grandfather, and a devout Jew. Hanrahan is a lapsed Catholic who’s been hitting the bottle pretty heavily ever since his wife walked out on him. They may be flawed, but they’re good cops. But even good cops have bad days. On a hot Chicago afternoon, Lieberman would prefer to be watching his beloved Cubs from the bleachers at Wrigley Field instead of sitting in his brother Maish’s deli with Hanrahan, meeting a prostitute and valued informant. But Estralda Valdez needs their protection from a psychotic john, and the partners agree to watch her back on their off-duty time. That Friday night, while Lieberman is in temple, Hanrahan has the first watch, across the street from Estralda’s apartment in a Chinese restaurant. But while he passes the time with two doubles and flirts with the waitress, the beautiful prostitute is brutally murdered. Tortured by guilt and chewed out by their chief, Lieberman and Hanrahan race against the clock to find the killer. They owe at least that much to Estralda. Lieberman’s Folly is “first-rate work, featuring characters you can almost touch and streets you can almost walk on, and an expertly plotted story” (The Phildelphia Inquirer).

Time is running out for surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and a 1940s Hollywood PI: “Fast-paced, well-plotted, consistently funny” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Talk about surreal! An ax-wielding monk hacks at a door, while on the other side private detective Toby Peters is running as fast as his recently broken leg will allow, alongside Salvador Dalí, dressed in a rabbit suit, repeatedly muttering “grasshoppers” as they try to make their escape. It all started when Dalí hired a gang of burglars to steal three of his own paintings—a publicity stunt that spiraled out of control when the thieves refused to give the missing masterpieces back. Dalí hired Peters to find the artwork, but now it seems the pair may have painted themselves into a corner. “The flamboyant prankster-artist [Dalí] holds his own among the hero’s circle of zany friends in Mr. Kaminsky’s Technicolor fantasy of 1940’s Hollywood.” —The New York Times “Once again Kaminsky mixes the real—in this case the surreal—with the fictional for a quick-paced, clever revisionist Hollywood romp.” —Publishers Weekly

Lovable everyman Lew Fonesca, the Man Who Makes Things Work in Sarasota, is once again faced with cases that try his patience and test his sanity. A local curmudgeon who has been campaigning to end state-sponsored school funding is brutally killed. A recent graduate of a public high school for the gifted is arrested for the crime and turns to Lew for help. A semi-retired and much beloved singer of children''s songs is being anonymously pushed to leave Sarasota, threatened with exposure as a sexual predator. It is up to Lew to uncover the blackmailer and determine whether there is any truth to the accusation. Lew has decided that life is worth more than just going through the motions. But will the good life that Lew so richly deserves elude him as he uncovers some very sad truths? His final choice--do the right thing and see his happiness evaporate... or betray a trust and stay happy... At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

On a Sunday night in 1942, private eye Toby Peters wakes up in a Los Angeles hotel room with a headache, a corpse on the bed, and John Wayne pointing a pistol between his eyes

Private eye Toby Peters follows boxing as much as the next guy, but he never expected to encounter heavyweight champ Joe Louis this way: covered with blood and standing next to the corpse of Peters'' ex-wife''s husband on a deserted beach! Martin''s.

"The Dead Don''t Lie" is the latest in Edgar Award winner and MWA''s Grand Master Stuart Kaminsky''s Abe Lieberman mystery series. Lieberman and his partner, Bill Hanrahan, are hell or heaven bent on making the mean streets of Chicago just a little safer. As usual they have their hands full. Three prominent members of the Turkish community are all brutally murdered and Lieberman must find out what, if anything, ties these murders together. It doesn''t help that the key to the puzzle might be an event that took place over a century ago. Bill Hanrahan finds himself assigned to a case where a hospitalized chef claims to have been beaten by two people and shot by a third, a bespectacled Chinese man. As Bill digs deeper he finds himself at odds with an old nemesis, a man who has an unusual affinity for Bill''s wife. Both Lieberman and Hanrahan struggle to do the right thing even if it means bending the letter, not the spirit, of the law.

As a private eye, Toby Peters has had some pretty impressive clients over the years, but none of them has been quite as memorable as his latest: a tough-as-nails, sharp-witted, damsel-in-distress named Mae West. Mae, it seems, has discovered that her only copy of her sizzling autobiography is missing. Without hesitation, Peters agrees to track it down. But after taking a beating from a man named Ressner --a thief, a master of disguise, and, even more dangerous, a frustrated actor -- Peter realizes that his job is just beginning. Following the trait of Mae''s scandalous memoirs soon leads Peters into the midst of a family feud of Herculean proportions, and a California sanitarium from which he must make a daring escape worthy of Ressner himself....