Stuart Kaminsky: 65 books

This Chicago cop drama is “jam-packed with the stuff of good crime fiction—character, style, place, recognizable human conflict” (The Washington Post).   When the wife of a mob witness is killed and his teenage son is kidnapped, the ransom isn’t cash—it’s his life. The dead can’t testify....

A veteran Chicago cop who’s also a mensch, “Lieberman is endearing, wise in his crochets, weary with his wisdom” (The Washington Post Book World).   Thirty-three years ago, Connie Gower pulled a gun in a synagogue. He had come to avenge his brother, a two-bit hoodlum who’d been killed in...

With “shades of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett,” a 1940s Los Angeles private eye must recover FDR’s kidnapped dog (The San Diego Union-Tribune).   Working in Hollywood, private eye Toby Peters has met a lot of phonies. But his newest case concerns a four-legged faker who threatens the...

Gen. Douglas MacArthur enlists the help of a discreet private detective in “one of the sprightliest of the [Toby Peters] series” (Time). It’s September 1942, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur believes he’s got what it takes to win the war in the Pacific—but he’s got a personal problem...

A hard-boiled Hollywood PI has to work without a net to save Emmett Kelly from a killer who’s not clowning around: “Nostalgic fun” (Publishers Weekly). In February 1942, Californians may be living in fear of a Japanese attack, but the show must go on. The circus is in town—unfortunately...

It doesn’t take a genius to see Albert Einstein’s life is in danger, but it will take a hard-headed Hollywood PI to save him. It’s all relative.   It’s April 1942, the world is at war, and LA private detective Toby Peters has been summoned to Princeton, New Jersey, to deal with a situation...

Murder intrudes on a Moscow cop’s vacation: “Kaminsky’s Rostnikov novels are among the best mysteries being written” (The San Diego Union-Tribune).   Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov is finding spring in Yalta to be quite lovely. Accompanying his wife, Sarah, as she gets much needed rest and recuperation...

“Kaminsky gets Russia right, and Cuba right, but best of all he gets his superb cop Rostnikov altogether right yet another time. Bravo!” —Ed McBain   The Soviet Union is dead, and Russian society has been fractured into a thousand pieces. Through those cracks seeps the first serial killer in...

“Edgar winner Kaminsky offers plenty of nostalgic fun” as Hollywood PI Toby Peters teams up with Cary Grant in this World War II–era spy romp (Publishers Weekly).   Since the start of World War II, Cary Grant has been working undercover in Hollywood as a spy for the British crown. When a ring...

With his Edgar Award–winning series about a Moscow cop, “Kaminsky’s a master of tone, maintaining the edgy excitement of suspense” (The Washington Post). In the 1960s, Russian children wanted to be cosmonauts like Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. But the Soviet Union is history,...

Time is running out for surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and a 1940s Hollywood PI: “Fast-paced, well-plotted, consistently funny” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).   Talk about surreal! An ax-wielding monk hacks at a door, while on the other side private detective Toby Peters is running as fast as...

Moscow’s gone to the dogs in the “imaginative” Edgar Award–winning crime series about a conscientious Russian cop (The New York Times Book Review). With packs of stray wild canines roaming Moscow, it was inevitable that enterprising criminals would find a way to get rich. As dogfighting...

A Moscow cop is left out in the cold in this “impressive” Edgar Award winner for Best Mystery Novel (The Washington Post Book World). When forced to choose between the law and the party line, Police Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov has a disturbing tendency to fight for justice, and that has...

Frankly, a killer doesn’t give a damn about offing Clark Gable—or Toby Peters—in this “fast-paced and colorful addition to a very successful series” (Publishers Weekly). On December 10, 1938, Atlanta burned again. In the back lot at David O. Selznick’s studio, sets from a dozen...