A couple of days ago, Lars Walker reviewed Bullet for a Start, a light hard-boiled detective novel (if that makes sense) by Stuart M. Kaminsky. I was looking for books to read yesterday, and it sounded light and entertaining, and for the most part it was.

The book is set in the 1940’s; the protagonist is one Toby Peters, a small-time PI who used to be a security guard at the Warner Brothers studio. He’s called in to investigate a blackmail attempt against Error Flynn, and along the way runs into Peter Lorre, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and others. Oh, and he gets beat up repeatedly.

This is the first in a series of novels first published in the 1970’s, and in the usual way of things (according to Lars) Toby isn’t quite himself yet.

If this sounds at all interesting, you should go take a look at Lars’ post; I don’t see any point in repeating his perfectly accurate review.