Buried Caesars

Toby joins forces with a famous PI to save a general from embarrassmentThe uniformed man standing before Toby Peters is General Douglas MacArthur, a soldier who considers himself the only man who can defeat the Japanese. But though he may be all-powerful in the South Pacific, today he is in Los Angeles with a problem only a detective can solve. The general has an eye on a post-war promotion to the White House, and an aide has stolen his war chest, his donor list, and a handful of embarrassing private letters. To get them back, Toby may need some help. Lucky for him, he’s just met Dashiell Hammett, one of the finest crime novelists of all time. Dodging his mistress while he’s waiting to rejoin the army, Dash needs amusement and thinks Toby’s case sounds like a lark.In fact, the assignment proves dangerous. Toby may not be a soldier, but he’s finally gotten a chance to die at a general’s whim.From Publishers WeeklyIt's September 1942, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur has hired private eye Toby Peters to recover some incriminating papers that might keep the general from going into public life after the war. The papers, and funds that could help MacArthur finance a campaign, have been stolen by a civilian aide, Andrew Lansing. Meanwhile, Peters is offered the services of another detective, former Pinkerton op Dashiell Hammett, who's hiding out from Lillian Hellman while trying to recover his health so he can enlist in the army. The chase leads the two to Angel Springs, Calif., and to the mysterious and eccentric millionaire, Mr. Pintacki, who has his own ideas about keeping America great, which don't include a general as president. After Peters discovers Lansing's body on Pintacki's property, the crazed tycoon and his goons pursue Hammett and Peters; the latter, at the same time, tries to make time with his former wife and runs afoul of his uptight cop brother Phil. This 13th entry in Kaminsky's ( The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance ) immensely popular series about Peters tries too hard and spreads itself too thin: the background and the effort to establish it are just a little too obvious. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.