The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance

A Toby Peters Mystery

By: Stuart M. Kaminsky

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Toby Peters wakes up with a headache, a gun in his face, and a body on the hotel-room bed. He is less surprised by the gun than by the man holding it: Marion Morrison, a.k.a John Wayne. Both of them were lured here by the dead man. The next arrival is a prostitute named Olivia, and hot on her heels is the house detective, who's come to check on the commotion in Room 303.

Reasoning that nobody knows all four of them besides the desk clerk, Teddy Spaghetti, the two detectives haul Teddy upstairs, where he confesses to the murder. Since Wayne, Peters, and Olivia all have careers to protect, the house detective agrees to keep their names out of it. It's all very simple - much too simple. As he looks into the murder, Toby finds that powerful people want to stop him from learning what really happened while he was sleeping in Room 303.

©1986 Stuart Kaminsky (P)2013 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"If you like your mysteries Sam Spade tough, with tongue-in-cheek and a touch of the theatrical, then the Toby Peters series is just your ticket." ( Houston Chronicle)

Johnny Heller Made the Difference

The narrator made the difference in turning this from an okay, old-time P.I. story into a very enjoyable audiobook.

Detective noir lite

I will listen to any title on any topic by this narrator.

The book gently nods to detective noir with light and plausible dialogue.

Characters are believable (excepting the Jahn Wayne character) if not very deep.