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gossamerwingedgazelle's review against another edition
4.0
As with the others I have read in this series, this book was witty, fun and full of movie trivia. I really enjoyed it.
csdaley's review against another edition
4.0
Very light read but if you are looking for something fun and fast this is it. Double bonus that the Wizard of Oz plays a big part of the back story.
brianlokker's review against another edition
4.0
On November 1, 1940, private investigator Toby Peters gets a call from Judy Garland asking him to come to the M.G.M. studios. He’s intrigued. “I had a few dollars in the bank for a job I had just completed for Errol Flynn, but it wouldn’t last long and M.G.M. was the money studio.”
When he arrives, he finds that one of the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz has been murdered. Everyone at M.G.M., from studio chief Louis B. Mayer on down, wants Toby not only to solve the murder quickly but to do it in a way that will avoid negative publicity, which could be disastrous for the studio. In Mayer’s opinion, a scandal involving a murdered Munchkin on the M.G.M. lot would even be bad for the country, because people believe in The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland, and M.G.M.
The police, led by Toby’s detective brother Phil, think they have the murderer in custody, but Toby thinks they’re wrong. As he pursues his investigation, though, he soon learns the hard way that getting too close to the killer could be dangerous to his own health.
Toby is a classic hard-boiled PI. As he describes himself, “My nose is against my face from two punches too many. At 44 I’ve a few grey hairs in my short sideburns, and my smile looks like a cynical sneer even when I’m having a good time, which isn’t very often.” His office is shabby. He shares space with a third-rate dentist in a decrepit building that “had the eternal smell of Lysol to cover up the essence of derelict in the cracked tile hall.” The building has an elevator, “but a crippled spinster on relief could beat it to the fourth floor without even trying.” You get the idea.
This is the second book in the Toby Peters series, and both of them are fun reads, especially for those who like both noir detective fiction and classic Hollywood movies. (The first book, Bullet for a Star, is about the Errol Flynn case referred to above.) The mysteries are engaging on their own terms, but the best aspect of the books, in my opinion, is the interaction between the fictional characters and some real-life people from the era, most notably movie stars and others in the movie business.
I enjoy the way that Kaminsky integrates these nonfictional characters into the story. In this book, besides Judy Garland and Louis B. Mayer, others with whom Toby interacts include Victor Fleming, the director of 1939 box-office hits The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind, and GWTW star Clark Gable, both of whom witnessed the Munchkin murder. (Did any Hollywood director ever have a better year than Fleming had in 1939?) Toby also sees William Randolph Hearst at his estate, but they don’t talk.
My favorite cameo of all is the noir master himself, Raymond Chandler. When Toby runs into him in a hotel lobby, he has already published The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely, but he tells Toby that he often sits around hotel lobbies “picking up characters and dialogue.” He’s happy he found Toby: “‘You’re the first real private investigator I’ve seen at work.’” So the next time I read a Raymond Chandler novel, I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for hints of Chandler’s inspiration, Toby Peters.
When he arrives, he finds that one of the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz has been murdered. Everyone at M.G.M., from studio chief Louis B. Mayer on down, wants Toby not only to solve the murder quickly but to do it in a way that will avoid negative publicity, which could be disastrous for the studio. In Mayer’s opinion, a scandal involving a murdered Munchkin on the M.G.M. lot would even be bad for the country, because people believe in The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland, and M.G.M.
The police, led by Toby’s detective brother Phil, think they have the murderer in custody, but Toby thinks they’re wrong. As he pursues his investigation, though, he soon learns the hard way that getting too close to the killer could be dangerous to his own health.
Toby is a classic hard-boiled PI. As he describes himself, “My nose is against my face from two punches too many. At 44 I’ve a few grey hairs in my short sideburns, and my smile looks like a cynical sneer even when I’m having a good time, which isn’t very often.” His office is shabby. He shares space with a third-rate dentist in a decrepit building that “had the eternal smell of Lysol to cover up the essence of derelict in the cracked tile hall.” The building has an elevator, “but a crippled spinster on relief could beat it to the fourth floor without even trying.” You get the idea.
This is the second book in the Toby Peters series, and both of them are fun reads, especially for those who like both noir detective fiction and classic Hollywood movies. (The first book, Bullet for a Star, is about the Errol Flynn case referred to above.) The mysteries are engaging on their own terms, but the best aspect of the books, in my opinion, is the interaction between the fictional characters and some real-life people from the era, most notably movie stars and others in the movie business.
I enjoy the way that Kaminsky integrates these nonfictional characters into the story. In this book, besides Judy Garland and Louis B. Mayer, others with whom Toby interacts include Victor Fleming, the director of 1939 box-office hits The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind, and GWTW star Clark Gable, both of whom witnessed the Munchkin murder. (Did any Hollywood director ever have a better year than Fleming had in 1939?) Toby also sees William Randolph Hearst at his estate, but they don’t talk.
My favorite cameo of all is the noir master himself, Raymond Chandler. When Toby runs into him in a hotel lobby, he has already published The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely, but he tells Toby that he often sits around hotel lobbies “picking up characters and dialogue.” He’s happy he found Toby: “‘You’re the first real private investigator I’ve seen at work.’” So the next time I read a Raymond Chandler novel, I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for hints of Chandler’s inspiration, Toby Peters.
carolsnotebook's review against another edition
3.0
Murder on the Yellow Brick Road by Stuart Kaminsky is the second Toby Peters mystery I’ve listened to and I actually liked it better than the first.
Toby Peters is a stereotypical PI, wise-cracking and under-paid with a soft spot for a damsel in distress, not just Judy but her assistant, who seems to find Toby irresistable. Toby should really have known better. His brother’s a cop and somehow Toby always end up as one of the main suspects in murders. He has quite a knack for being in the wrong place at the right time, whether he’s being paid to be there or not. Toby knows his way around the film industry and keeps asking questions, following suspects, getting shot at until he finds some answers.
The dialogue is funny and Christopher Lane, who narrates the book pulls it off well, almost tongue-in-cheek, but not quite. At four hours, twenty minutes, the story is a good length, long enough to develop the characters and plot, but so long that you get tired of the vintage Hollywood gimmic. The celebrities are shown in as realistic a fashion as possible, but the line-up of potential suspects is actually pretty small since you know the killer has to be one of the fictional characters – so it isn’t too hard to figure out the culprit ahead of Toby. The classic Hollywood atmosphere is captured well, making me feel like I was there, watching.
Toby Peters is a stereotypical PI, wise-cracking and under-paid with a soft spot for a damsel in distress, not just Judy but her assistant, who seems to find Toby irresistable. Toby should really have known better. His brother’s a cop and somehow Toby always end up as one of the main suspects in murders. He has quite a knack for being in the wrong place at the right time, whether he’s being paid to be there or not. Toby knows his way around the film industry and keeps asking questions, following suspects, getting shot at until he finds some answers.
The dialogue is funny and Christopher Lane, who narrates the book pulls it off well, almost tongue-in-cheek, but not quite. At four hours, twenty minutes, the story is a good length, long enough to develop the characters and plot, but so long that you get tired of the vintage Hollywood gimmic. The celebrities are shown in as realistic a fashion as possible, but the line-up of potential suspects is actually pretty small since you know the killer has to be one of the fictional characters – so it isn’t too hard to figure out the culprit ahead of Toby. The classic Hollywood atmosphere is captured well, making me feel like I was there, watching.
jonjeffryes's review against another edition
4.0
Toby Peters is hirer my MGM to look into a murder of one of the actors playing a Munchkin on the Wizard of Oz set on the downlow after Judy Garland discovers the body. This second entry introduces Peters friend Wherthman and landlord the ex-wrestler Jeremy Butler. We also see how Toby finds a place in the rooming house he’ll live in throughout the series. The mystery in this one is so-so, but the journey is fun.
danielace68's review
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
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