A Fatal Glass of Beer
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
This “enjoyable lark” is a road-trip mystery with an old Hollywood backdrop, starring PI Toby Peters and the great comic W. C. Fields (Library Journal).
Under names like Otis J. Raisincluster, Quigley E. Sneersight, and Cormorant Beecham III, W. C. Fields squirreled away nearly a million dollars in banks across the country during his vaudeville days—before he became one of the silver screen’s most recognizable funnymen. But it’s no laughing matter when a burglar has the audacity to rob him blind, stealing his bankbooks and cleaning out his accounts. Steaming, the comedian hires Hollywood private investigator Toby Peters to track down the missing dough and protect what remains of his nest egg.
On a cross-country road trip through small-town 1940s America, a frequently inebriated Fields and a frequently exasperated Peters encounter complications in the form of the Amish, John Barrymore, and the Ku Klux Klan. But can they catch their elusive quarry—Lester O. Hipnoodle?
“Even on the printed page . . . Fields’ nasal rap seems to rise up and envelop you” in the Edgar Award–winning author’s “mesmerizing” comic mystery (Chicago Sun-Times).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 20th appearance of Toby Peters, Hollywood's Golden Age PI, begins on April 1, 1943, and traces Peters's road trip with W.C. Fields as they try to catch up with the thief who is emptying out bank accounts the comedian has stashed in different states throughout the country. From L.A. to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Utah, they and their driver, multilingual Swiss midget Gunther Wherthman, remain just a step behind the man who assumes Fields's identity and cleans out one account after another, and only one step in front of Fields's former driver whom they thought had stayed in L.A. A murder in Iowa reveals that John Barrymore had been involved in what was intended as an elaborate caper. After stumbling into a KKK rally in Nebraska, the threesome learn that yet another party is involved in the thievery and are involved in a second homicide. Back in L.A., Toby connects up with his police detective brother and determines where the April Fool's Day joke turned into a fatally serious game. Kaminsky (Dancing in the Dark) balances one-liners from Fields with headlines about the war effort in this amiable adventure that delivers a nicely twisted plot with fully dimensioned characters, including the usually caricatured misanthropic comedian.
