Mildred Pierced, Stuart M. Kaminsky
Mildred Pierced, Stuart M. Kaminsky
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Mildred Pierced

Author: Stuart M. Kaminsky

Narrator: Stuart M. Kaminsky

Unabridged: 6 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/27/2021

Synopsis

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).

About Stuart M. Kaminsky

Stuart M. Kaminsky (1934-2009) was one of the most prolific crime fiction authors of the last four decades. Born in Chicago, he spent his youth immersed in pulp fiction and classic cinema-two forms of popular entertainment which he would make his life's work. After college and a stint in the army, Kaminsky wrote film criticism and biographies of the great actors and directors of Hollywood's Golden Age. In 1977, when a planned biography of Charlton Heston fell through, Kaminsky wrote Bullet for a Star, his first Toby Peters novel, beginning a fiction career that would last the rest of his life.

Kaminsky penned twenty-four novels starring the detective, whom he described as "the anti-Philip Marlowe." In 1981's Death of a Dissident, Kaminsky debuted Moscow police detective Porfiry Rostnikov, whose stories were praised for their accurate depiction of Soviet life. His other two series starred Abe Lieberman, a hardened Chicago cop, and Lew Fonseca, a process server. In all, Kaminsky wrote more than sixty novels. He died in St. Louis in 2009.

Reviews

Goodreads review by James on May 02, 2024

The penultimate Toby Peters mystery. Damn it. Toby's friend, office mate, and all-around idiot dentist, seems to have accidentally killed his estranged wife, with a crossbow. Joan Crawford, who witnessed it, wants her name kept out of the press, as she tries to secure her comeback film. Both are Toby......more

Goodreads review by F.R. on October 05, 2023

Joan Crawford is the guest star this time around, and the portrayal is interesting. More sympathetic and not as hard as she's normally perceived as being. So maybe more real. The actual mystery here is so complex it defies credibility. However, the book earns an actual star for daring to go somewhere......more

Goodreads review by Mike on September 08, 2017

After many weeks and months of pursuing Scandinavian mysteries, I decided to switch gears for a moment and go American. I stumbled across one of the many Toby Peters mysteries by Kaminsky and had a good, fun, though not memorable experience. The charm of Kaminsky’s Peters is that he’s cast from the......more

Goodreads review by K on December 15, 2017

The prolific Stuart Kaminsky has several series that I enjoy whenever possible. He's a very gifted and humorous author, but one that can also weave a pretty tight plot as well. Mildred Pierced is yet another example of such blending-- humor and a few nice plot twists, all told with tongue in cheek w......more

Goodreads review by Jon on July 24, 2021

Mr. Kaminsky is clearly winding down this series. He's starting to tie up loose ends in this book. I won't give anything away, but let's just say that Toby Peters gets a surprising new partner. The celeb in this one is Joan Crawford, who doesn't have as prominent a role in this as, say, Cary Grant d......more

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