Customer Reviews

A Few Minutes Past Midnight

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read my first Toby Peters' story twenty-five years ago. It was A BULLET FOR A STAR, and I immediately fell in love with him, the characters that surround him, the world he lives in, and with the writing of the author who created him.

During that twenty-five years, Toby has managed to star in twenty mystery adventures (each with its own celebrity guest star) while only aging five fictional years.

That is why its strange that the characters seen to have aged and changed so much in the time between this novel and previous one, A FATAL GLASS OF BEER. Maybe, the war or personal concerns are wearing them down. Or maybe it's the fact that the Golden Era of Hollywood is winding to a close. Or maybe, we, the readers and the author, are just growing old. I hope not, Toby Peters exists in a time warp that Stuart Kaminsky, his creator was always able to capture so perfectly. Besides, I still have hopes that someone in television will finally realize that Toby's adventures would make a GREAT television series.

Anyway, return to a wartime Hollywood in 1943 - Charlie Chaplin is Toby's latest co-star and client - and it seems as if someone has borrowed the plot of Lady Killer, Chaplin's latest movie project, for a real life murder spree. Now all Toby and his cast of supporting players (a midget, a giant and a mad dentist) have to do is catch the killer before he completes his gruesome project.

While this book was not up to par with earlier Toby Peter's adventures, I still enjoyed it and I encourage you to give it a try and meet Toby and his associates. By the way, though Toby does not meet his next client at the end of this book as he usually does, I understand that the next adventure will co-star the lord of the jungle himself, Johnny Weismuller. And I can't wait!

I've read all of Stuart Kaminsky's mysteries, but I started with the Toby Peters series, and I reread several of them frequently. It's been quite a few years since the last entry in the series--the excellent "A Fatal Glass of Beer"--an I was beginning to wonder is Kaminsky had simply lost interest in Peters. Admittedly, the Peters books are often slight affairs. Kaminsky's Rostnikov and Leiberman books, while displaying the same talent for colorful characters and fast-moving plots, are weightier, and present a coherent--if often melancholy--worldview.

This long-awaited return to the Peters series suggests, I think, that Kaminsky is having trouble getting back into the more light-hearted spirit of the earlier books. The usual wonderful characters are all here, but they're aging; Shelly is depressed, Gunther may soon move away, Jeremy's wife is getting more and more concerned about his health. Toby's brother Phil and his ex-wife Ann are showing the years, too, and the weary resignation that has always been present in the Rostnikov books is now almost as dominant here.

Don't get me wrong--I enjoyed the book, I recommend the book, and I'm happy to see these characters again. But it seems appropriate that the celebrity guest here is Chaplin, whose humor has always been tinged with pathos and an awareness of mortality. I have to wonder if this is Kaminsky's farewell to his first series character.

At last! A new "Toby Peters". I've been a fan since the first ("Bullet for a Star") and have every last one except "You Bet Your Life" (which has been stolen from me... twice!) in first editions. Sure, Kaminsky writes other books of greater depth and more realistic characters. Sure, the Peters books are formula. And, sure, we get idealized portraits of the movie stars Peters deals with, instead of anything resembling in-depth studies of them that we might expect from film-historian Kaminsky. But, so what! For pure unadulterated FUN there has never been a series to equal it! If you're a film fan, hell, if you've ever seen a movie made before 1980, you're gonna love this one (and all the others in the series). Keep up the good work Mr. K., and fergoshsakes, let's not have another half decade between adventures!

Toby Peters, private detective, is a hard-boiled, middle-aged, ex-cop, divorced, scarred physically and emotionally. Private detectives of essentially the same description may be found in the works of Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, James Lee Burke, Steve Hamilton and even Sue Grafton, among others, but somehow Stuart Kaminsky manages to make Toby Peters seem brand new each time out.

In each of the series Toby Peters is hired by a person famous in the 1930s or 1940s. Among his clients have been Salvatore Dali, the Marx Brothers, Eleanor Roosevelt, W.C. Fields and Humphrey Bogart. In this book, Charlie Chaplin hires Toby Peters to find out who is threatening the life of the clown genius. In every case, the famous person is great fun.

The plots are more or less the same in each book, but somehow they feel new. At least, they feel okay. The atmosphere and the characters are what the reader finds interesting. Peters has a semi-deaf landlady who thinks he is an exterminator and book editor. In the same rooming house is a midget who works as a literary translater. Peters rents office space with an incompetent dentist who smokes cigars as he tortures unsuspecting patients. An ex-pornographer has offices upstairs. A mechanic known as "no neck" works on the detective's car. Peters wanders through a world of greasy restaurants, partiaking of tacos and Pepsi. He listens to period radio shows and drives a Crosley. It is a wonderful world of nostalgia, jeopardy, and humor. There is no one quite like Kaminsky, and I would recommend his books to any mystery reader.

One of the things I've always enjoyed about the Toby Peters series is the fun, interesting cast of supporting characters. This latest entry makes excellent use of the best of them--Gunther, Jeremy & Shelly. It also has a very well-constructed plot (as do all of Kaminsky's novels) and the usual high level of humor. I also enjoyed Toby's growing relationship with his brother. One of Kaminsky's strength is his ability to combine humor with realistic and touching characterizations.

The 4 year hiatus that Kaminsky took between Fatal Glass of Beer and this one seems to have dampened his enthusiasm for Toby Peters. While the book was enjoyable it seemed to "cut to the chase" more quickly than before. Also, the characters seemed to lose their "lightheartedness" over the past 4 years. This one seemed much "darker" than the previous 20. I do hope the series continues and reader don't have to wait as long for the next one, but Kaminsky needs get back on track and return to his breezy, uninhibited style and lose the somber overtones.

Like a previous reveiwer said, I wish I liked this book more. I have also read all of the books in this series, but the books have fallen into a deep rut.

Before I started the book, I was explaining the series to my wife, and gave the general structure of each one (prologue which is "I'm about to die" scene from later in the book, etc., etc., right up to last page where next "client" gets in contact with Toby). This book followed the "plan" exactly -- except for naming the next client.

Plot-wise, the story seems needlessly complicated, and has little that really concerns Chaplin. With only a few minor tweaks, this could have been about anyone.

Kaminsky continues to produce fast moving, funny and unique characters in this marvelous series featuring one very bedraggled detective hero, his more than colorful sidekicks (a multilanguage speaking Swiss dwarf, a retired giant of a wrestler who writes poetry, an incompetant dentist, a dotty, ancient landlady, and, for good measure, a different member of Hollywood royalty in each book of the series, in this case, Charlie Chaplin. A feast of fast reading enjoyment for any reader and, for a Golden Age of Hollywood fan, sheer delight. Accurate in it's details of WWII era Hollywood and excellently written A Few Minutes Past Midnight is a funny, delightful addition to the series. Try it and I'm sure you'll want to read the rest of them.

LA based PI Toby Peters has a habit of getting clients from the movie world in the Golden age of the Studio system .This 1943 set novel sees him engaged by Charlie Chaplin who has been threatened by a nocturnal ,knife wielding visitor who demands he abandon his current project ,a dark comedy of a man who kills wealthy women for their dowry (it late became the classic Monsieur Verdoux),and also to stay away from one Fiona Sullivan ,a name with which Chaplin is unfamiliar.Peters traces Fiona and discovers she has been seeing a man named Howard Sawyer,who fits the description given by Chaplin and who has a list on which Fiona's name and that of several other recently deceased women appears .The next name is that of a wealthy woman named Blanche Wiltsey .Peters and his motley crew of helpers -the usual support cast of his dentist Sheldon Minck ,ex wrestler Jeremy etc -must protect Fiona and prevent the death of Blanche .In a twist borrowed ,I suspect from The ABC Murders by Christie,only one name on the list is significant,the others being diversions

The author captures the essence ofn Chaplin admirably-slightly pompous and self important but a decent enough man with a talent for making enemies and a naive grasp of politics .The plot is brisk ,and the period is deftly evoked .There is a dark undertone with family tragedy looming and a hint of the HUAC era to come after the war.

This is smoothly written and well plotted and a good read especially for old movie lovers ,Kaminsky's love for movies coming through clearly in the book and the rest of the series generally
The killer is a slick operator-an actor ,skilled in disguise and quite ruthless and Toby must battle for his life before the tale draws to its conclusion

A very ordinary mystery. It seemed the client (Charlie Chaplin) did a lot of the work for the detective that he hired. Toby Peters is average at best and appeared to be too obtuse to be a Private Eye. The book was not fast paced,or even terribly exciting. It barely held my interest to the find out who did it or why. For this author, whose works I have read in the past, this is poor. Find another of his work. MOst are much much better