Bullet for a Star

By Stuart M. Kaminsky

Hollywood detective. Toby Peters does a job for one of Tinseltown's finest.

It's been four years since security guard Toby Peters got fired from the Warner Brothers lot for breaking a screen cowboy's arm. Since then he's scratched out a living as a private detective -- missing persons and bodyguard work, mostly -- but now his old friends, the Warners, have a job for him. Someone has mailed the studio a picture of Errol Flynn caught in a compromising position with a very young girl. Although Flynn insists it's a fake, the studio is taking no chances. Toby is to deliver the blackmailer $5,000 and return with the photo negative. It should be simple, but Flynn, a swashbuckler on and off the screen, has a way of making things complicated.

Though he isn't impressed by movie stars, if Toby Peters isn't careful he may end up dying for one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784086138

Stuart M. Kaminsky

Stuart M. Kaminsky (1934-2009) was the author of fifty novels, including the Lew Fonesca mystery series and the Toby Peters mystery series. A former president of Mystery Writers of America, Kaminsky was a recipient of the Edgar Award and the Prix de Roman D’Aventure of France. He was also nominated for the Shamus and McCavity Awards. His previous tie-in work includes two original Rockford Files novels.

Reviews for Bullet for a Star

[addunn3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Toby Peters is hired to stop a blackmailer of Errol Flynn. Well put together.

[fuzzi_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've enjoyed other works by this author but until picking up Bullet for a Star I'd not read any of his Toby Peters mysteries. It's a decent read, with lots of name-dropping of Hollywood stars of the 1930s and just the right amount of humor, in my opinion. And for the reader who prefers stories without graphic sex or violence, this almost makes the grade. I'll keep an eye out for additional books in this series.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am a sucker for a 1940’s Los Angeles/Hollywood setting, a hard-boiled mystery with some violence and real life cameos by various movie stars therefore, Bullet For a Star by Stuart Kaminsky was a really good read for me. I love old movies and their stars and plenty of these real life actors make an appearance in this book including Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Peter Lorrie and Errol Flynn. There was also the treat of having some great movie sets being used as a backdrop throughout the story. I was able to visit the sets of High Sierra, Santa Fe Passage and The Maltese Falcon. Down on his luck, private investigator Toby Peters takes on a job for his old studio boss at Warner Brothers that requires him to pay off a blackmailer who has incriminating pictures of Errol Flynn. Even though these pictures are more than likely falsified the studio just wants them gone. Of course, things are never that simple and before he knows it Toby is up to his ears in murder, mayhem and movie stars.Bullet for a Star was a really fun read and, as much as I loved the name-dropping and the setting, the mystery was also intriguing and there was plenty of action to keep the pages turning. Toby Peters is a likeable, sympathetic character, tenacious, honest and witty. I look forward to continuing on with his adventures because this book is the first book in a long series.

[arctangent_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Slow Start For a Long SeriesA divorced, down-on-his-luck, tough as nails private detective in 1940's Los Angeles, one with connections to the movie industry. It sounds like a perfect recipe for a series of serio-comic pseudo-noir adventures. I guess my expectations were too high, because this first of a 24 volume series, written between 1978 and 2004, fell flat for me.The protagonist, Toby Peters, scratches out a meager living taking mostly low-end investigative jobs. This first volume finds him heading toward a hush-hush job for one of the higher ups at Warner Brothers where Peters once worked. It turns out to be very much a risk - reward situation. The job - retrieve a potentially damaging photo and its negative, allegedly depicting Errol Flynn in an extremely compromising position with an extremely young girl. The reward - $400, which in 1940 would have been quite substantial. Given the number of assaults, both on Peters and on the villains and their hired thugs, and the ensuing number of deaths, it's hard to see how Peters can survive 23 more such cases.The book was an obvious vehicle for displaying the corrupt, seamy side of the film industry, and for showing in a humorous way the shenanigans that the stars of the day got up to. But for me, it seemed as though the author wasn't sure which way he wanted to play it, noir or tongue-in-cheek noir. There was plenty of mayhem, but it wasn't darkly realistic or side-splittingly funny, as in, say, a Simon Pegg movie. There wasn't anything about the main character that we haven't all seen in other characters, and unlike other reviewers on Amazon, I didn't find Peters especially likable or even interesting. I'd class the writing style as mediocre, nothing that by itself would tempt me to read many more of the series