As a hard-boiled Hollywood PI enlists Al Capone's help to save the
Marx Brothers, Kaminsky "makes the totally wacky possible" (The
Washington Post).
It's 1941 and the Marx Brothers' first movie for MGM, Go West, has the
country in stitches. But now Chico Marx is worried he's going to need
stitches when he receives a severed ear in the mail--a simple message
from a Chicago bookie who wants $120,000, or else. Chico is baffled
because, although he loves to gamble, he's never made a bet in Chicago.
Desperate, he turns to the king of Hollywood, Louis B. Mayer, who puts
in a call to Toby Peters.
A Hollywood private detective who's proven himself adept at keeping
scandals out of the tabloids, Peters flies to Florida for an interview
with Al Capone, deposed lord of the Chicago underworld. The retired
bootlegger's mind has gone soft, and he doesn't know anything about
Chico's bookie, but he suggests Peters speak to his brother. With
Scarface's good word as an introduction, the PI heads to Chicago. But it
will take more than a good sense of humor to keep Groucho, Harpo, and
especially Chico from getting axed.
Edgar Award-winner Stuart Kaminsky's "Toby Peters series was a delight.
They were written with more than a dash of humor and featured a variety
of improbable real-life characters, ranging from the Marx Brothers to
Judy Garland" (Library Journal).
