The Japanese have just bombed Pearl Harbor, Nazi Germany is marching through
Russia, and two Hollywood lights are watching their stars dim. Its January 1942. Bela Lugosi,
the Hungarian actor who, years before, had chillingly introduced millions of Americans to the
noble Count Dracula and is now struggling hard for a comeback, has just received his latest
death threata hat box containing a small bat impaled with a tiny stake through the heart.
Private eye Toby Peters, with no client on the books and a stomach that cries out for tacos and
the occasional beer, agrees to give the job a try. His business doubles in sound and fury when
William Faulkner, the nations most distinguished author gone Hollywood, is accused of firing
three fatal bullets into the chest of a movie agent he hardly knew. If a connection exists between
these wildly dissimilar cases, Peters will find it. The question iswill it be in time?

Stuart Kaminsky received the 1990 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery novel, as well as France's Grand Prix de Roman d'Aventures in 1991. His love of the movies and long career as a professor of film history led him to create the popular and critically acclaimed Toby Peters series. He lives in Florida with his wife and children.

Tom Parker, recipient of the Golden Voice award, records a remarkable variety of books while pursuing his love of theater by directing two or three professional stage productions a year in the Washington, D.C., area.