It is November 1st, 1940. In the famous sound stage of The Wizard of Oz on the MGM lot, a little man is lying face-up on the yellow brick road. Someone has murdered a Munchkin.

Toby Peters is summoned to the scene of the crime by a very young and frightened starlet named Judy Garland. He begins to put together the scanty clues. Within an hour, he is hired by Lewis B. Meyer himself, to keep the name of Judy Garland (and MGM) clean of the scandal, and to hold off the police and the newspapers. But before long, Peters realizes that he is on to nothing less than a plot threatening the life of Judy Garland. Enlisting the aid of Judy, Clark Gable, and Raymond Chandler, Peters uncovers clue after clue. But the odds are heavily stacked against him.

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.