Toby Peters is a down-on-his-luck private investigator working in wartime Los Angeles during the 1940s. Created by Stuart M. Kaminsky, Toby is a former security guard at Warner Bros. who got fired after breaking a cowboy actor’s tooth. He scrapes by with a cheap office in a building he shares with a dentist named Sheldon Minck, and his cases routinely bring him into contact with the biggest names in Hollywood.
What sets the series apart is its use of real historical figures. Each novel features a different Golden Age movie star who hires Toby or gets drawn into the mystery. Errol Flynn, the Marx Brothers, Mae West, Gary Cooper, Bela Lugosi, and many others appear across the 24 books. Kaminsky researched his celebrity characters carefully, and the period detail gives the stories a strong sense of 1940s Los Angeles.
Toby himself is no glamorous hero. He drives a dented Crosley, can barely afford his rent, and gets beaten up more often than he’d like. But he’s persistent, loyal to his clients, and good enough at his job to keep getting hired. The books balance humor with genuine mystery plotting, and Kaminsky’s background as a film historian gives the Hollywood setting real depth.
You can find the complete list of books in the Toby Peters series reading order.