Now You See It, Stuart M. Kaminsky
Now You See It, Stuart M. Kaminsky
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Now You See It

Author: Stuart M. Kaminsky

Narrator: Stuart M. Kaminsky

Unabridged: 6 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/27/2021

Synopsis

The final Toby Peters Hollywood whodunit from the Edgar Award–winning author is "a marvelous magic trick of a mystery" featuring Harry Blackstone (Booklist, starred review).

When an anonymous rival demands that master illusionist Harry Blackstone reveal his secrets on stage or die, the magician hires Toby Peters and his brother, ex-cop Phil Pevsner, to run security for his show at the famous Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Of course, Peters doesn't expect the job to include replacing a showgirl for Blackstone's show-stopping sawing-a-woman-in-half trick after the saboteur has stolen the blade.

Peters's brief career in magic is only the first surprise as a blackmailing con man turns up shot in a dressing room backstage and one of Blackstone's competitors ends up dead at a testimonial dinner. With "The Great Blackstone" now a murder suspect, the sleuth will need to pull a rabbit out of a hat to solve this mystery . . .

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 October 07, 2023

I’d never heard of Harry Blackstone before, but I’m always up for tricksy tales of magicians. This one is suitably contrived. For the first time (and in the last book), the formula is altered with Toby now in partnership with his brother, Phil. It works okay, but Phil is a little neutered. Given it’s......more

Goodreads review by K on October 10, 2017

Toby Peters mysteries, by talented author Stuart Kaminsky, are usually less mysterious than they are funny, quick-witted, slightly chaotic literary romps. Now You See It, however, leans much more toward the mystery end of the spectrum, probably because the co-protagonist is none other than that mast......more

Goodreads review by Robert on May 16, 2021

In a very noir style, Kaminsky spins a tale of blackmail and murder around Harry Blackstone in 1945 LA. Kaminsky cranked out a bunch of books, 24 of them in this detective series (of which, this was the last), and lots of influential film scripts and many years as a college film professor. Blackstone......more

Goodreads review by Dave on September 20, 2014

The last in the Toby Peters series ends on a solid note. It doesn't have quite the same sense of loopy humor that some of the earlier entries did, but this is offset by an expanded relationship between Toby and his brother Phil. I also liked the ending and the fact that Stuart Kaminsky broaches the......more

Goodreads review by Larry on March 01, 2025

I came to the Toby Peters series after reading the Rostnikov and Lieberman series. I never felt that Toby's books were as good; maybe it's because they were Kaminsky's first efforts in the mystery genre. But that's not to say they're not enjoyable. I ended up reading most of them this past year, and......more

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