The Devil Met a Lady

Why has fabulous Bette Davis - the best known face in the world behind Roosevelt and Hitler - been kidnapped not once, not twice, but three times? What in the world does this star abduction have to do with Third Reich designs on America's plans for a top-secret superbomber? And who else but Hollywood private eye Toby Peters - always short of a nightmare, far from a dream - to plunge into his seventeenth and most hair-raising adventure in pursuit of the answers? It begins with a frantic call from the elegant Arthur Farnsworth, an alcoholic designer of aircraft machinery and, not incidentally, Bette's most current husband. Farnsworth, spinning a tale of illicit passion and brazen blackmail, hires Peters to out-navigate the Nazis, as well as keep an eye on his illustrious wife. Spending about a third of his waking time on the phone and another third on his back (usually in hospitals). Peters penetrates a hapless spy ring composed of fourth-rate Tinseltown tough guys. He delves far too deeply for his own good into the bedroom peccadillos of America's glitter set. And, as bodies build around him, he sets off to the rescue of a movie goddess. But who'll protect Toby Peters from the divine Miss Davis? The Devil met a Lady heralds the long-awaited reunion of Toby Peters, vintage L.A.'s saltiest hard-boiled sleuth, with the greatest luminaries of the silver screen's golden age.