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MURDER ON THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD by Stuart Kaminsky

MURDER ON THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

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Pub Date: April 11th, 1978
Publisher: St. Martin's

If ever there was a detective debut that didn't call for sequels, it was the Bullet for a Star (1977) arrival of Toby Peters, a pseudo-hard-boiled type whose clients are real movie stars of the Forties. Nonetheless, Toby is back, begged by Judy Garland (popping pills) to find out why--months after Wizard of Oz has been finished--a costumed munchkin is lying dead on the Oz set. Kaminsky effortfully arranges things so that Toby needs to talk to famous people like Clark Gable (at San Simeon) and Victor Fleming, and then someone starts trying to kill Judy. The tediously worked-out solution involves porno-munchkin films and Hollywood, style jealousy, but Kaminsky is obviously as uninterested in mystery-making as he is untalented at it. He'd rather just drop names, like when Toby pals around with (chutzpah of chutzpahs) Raymond Chandler. And on the last page, it's threatened that Toby's next clients will be the Marx Brothers; watch out, Groucho, a boring man is coming to get you!