Murder on the Yellow Brick Road, Stuart M. Kaminsky
Murder on the Yellow Brick Road, Stuart M. Kaminsky
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
Club: $7.99

Murder on the Yellow Brick Road

Author: Stuart M. Kaminsky

Narrator: Patrick Lawlor

Unabridged: 4 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/06/2021


Synopsis

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).

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 F.R. on May 10, 2017

I am an unrepentant sucker for detective stories set in old Hollywood. Chandler was undoubtedly my gateway drug, before I moved on to James Ellroy, Ross MacDonald, Megan Abbott (Megan, I do really enjoy your new teen-focused novels, but if you want to write another noir feminist Hollywood mystery fo......more

Goodreads review by Bill on January 29, 2016

nice little mystery by Kamisky, set on the MGM sound stage during filming of Wizard of Oz......more