Dancing in the Dark

The Toby Peters mysteries are set in Hollywood during the 1930's and 1940's and they always involve Peters ,a PI ,becoming involved with the luminaries of the movie world .This time it is Fred Astaire who engages his services .The great hoofer is being inveighled into giving free dance lessons to the paramour of one Arthur Forbes ,a Detroit mobster who goes by the nickname Fingers Intaglia from his anti-social habit of removing the said digits from his numerous victims .Peters poses as a dance tutor and tries to persuade the lady not to take up the lessons .However things rapidly get more complicated when murder rears its ugly head .The lady in question is murdered folowed soon by the owner of a shady dance academy where she used to work and then by Forbes himself .Peters ,aided by Astaire ,sets out to track down the killer or killers Astaire ,like all the stars in the series' books ,receives sympathetic treatment and is shown as a dab hand in a fight as well as being something of a police junkie well used to riding in squad cars as a guest of the force The usual colourful support cast is in evidence -Peter's eccentric landlady and her interminable family history ,Jeremy the poetic ex-wrestler,Shelodon Minck the world's worst dentist The book,like others in the series ,is light and diveting being full of charm and a great love of movies and movie people ,the whole series being thoroughly recommendable to all who enjoy vintage cinema as well as a good mystery

I found this book and series while doing an auction "online" search for movie star memorabilia. Typing in "Rita Hayworth" and "Betty Grable" brought up a list of all kinds of "goodies," among them a book called, "Dancing In The Dark." The auction write-up mentioned that Toby Peters, a 1940's Los Angeles Private Investigator for the stars, hoofs it onstage with these two Hollywood lovelies after taking dancing lessons from Fred Astaire. Well, that hooked me, so I bought this book! What a hoot! Toby is modeled after such classic hard-boiled gumshoes as Sam Spade & Philip Marlowe, but he has a heart of gold and his narratives are witty and funny. Fred Astaire turns out to be a "crime aficionado' and sounds like, uh - Fred Astaire! Mr. Kaminsky does such a marvelous job of bringing Astarie to life that you feel like you are "watching" him in the movies! The action takes place in 1943 during WW II and the descriptions of the place and times are very authentic and interesting. Any fan of the old "classic" movies of the 1940's will thoroughly enjoy this book - and the Toby Peters series!