Stuart M. Kaminsky


Stuart M. Kaminsky was an American mystery writer and film professor. He is known for three long-running series of mystery novels featuring the protagonists Toby Peters, a private detective in 1940s Hollywood ; Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, a Moscow police inspector ; and veteran Chicago police officer Abe Lieberman. There is also a fourth series featuring a Sarasota, Florida, process server named Lew Fonesca.
Kaminsky's Inspector Rostnikov novel A Cold Red Sunrise received the 1989 Edgar Award for Best Novel. He earned six other Edgar nominations, most recently for the 2005 non-fiction book Behind the Mystery: Top Mystery Writers Interviewed, which was also nominated for an Anthony Award, a Macavity Award, and an Agatha Award. In 2006, Kaminsky received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Kaminsky wrote sixty-three novels and eleven non-fiction books in addition to various other works such as short story collections, graphic novels, screenplays, television scripts and theatrical plays.

Life and career

Kaminsky, who grew up in Chicago, earned a B.S. in journalism and an M.A. in English from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in speech from Northwestern University. He taught film studies at Northwestern for 16 years, and then taught at Florida State for six years.
Kaminsky's first novel was the 1977 Toby Peters mystery Bullet for a Starcreating the protagonist's name from a blend of his sons' names: Toby and Peter. He went on to write over sixty novels, as well as story collections and nonfiction works. Kaminsky was a past president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Besides being one of America's most prolific mystery writers, Kaminsky inspired many other writers in the genre, including fellow Chicagoan Sara Paretsky, who dedicated the first novel in her V. I. Warshawski private-eye series to Kaminsky.

Death

Kaminsky and his wife, Enid Perll, moved to St. Louis, Missouri in March 2009 to await a liver transplant to treat the hepatitis he contracted as an army medic in the late 1950s in France. He suffered a stroke two days after their arrival in St. Louis, which made him ineligible for a transplant. He died on October 9, 2009.

Works

Novels

Toby Peters series

  1. Bullet for a Star
  2. Murder on the Yellow Brick Road
  3. You Bet Your Life
  4. The Howard Hughes Affair
  5. Never Cross a Vampire
  6. High Midnight
  7. Catch a Falling Clown
  8. He Done Her Wrong
  9. The Fala Factor
  10. Down for the Count
  11. The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance
  12. Smart Moves
  13. Think Fast, Mr. Peters
  14. Buried Caesars
  15. Poor Butterfly
  16. The Melting Clock
  17. The Devil Met a Lady
  18. Tomorrow Is Another Day
  19. Dancing in the Dark
  20. A Fatal Glass of Beer
  21. A Few Minutes Past Midnight
  22. To Catch a Spy
  23. Mildred Pierced
  24. ''Now You See It''

    Inspector Rostnikov series

  25. Rostnikov's Corpse

  1. Black Knight in Red Square
  2. Red Chameleon
  3. A Fine Red Rain
  4. A Cold Red Sunrise
  5. The Man Who Walked Like a Bear
  6. Rostnikov's Vacation
  7. Death of a Russian Priest
  8. Hard Currency
  9. Blood and Rubles
  10. Tarnished Icons
  11. The Dog Who Bit a Policeman
  12. Fall of a Cosmonaut
  13. Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express
  14. People Who Walk in Darkness
  15. ''A Whisper to the Living''

    Lew Fonesca series

  16. Vengeance
  17. Retribution
  18. Midnight Pass
  19. Denial
  20. Always Say Goodbye
  21. ''Bright Futures''

    Abe Lieberman series

  22. Lieberman's Folly
  23. Lieberman's Choice
  24. Lieberman's Day
  25. Lieberman's Thief
  26. Lieberman's Law
  27. The Big Silence
  28. Not Quite Kosher
  29. The Last Dark Place
  30. Terror Town
  31. ''The Dead Don't Lie''

    ''[CSI: NY]''

  32. Dead of Winter
  33. Blood on the Sun
  34. ''Deluge''

    Rockford Files">The Rockford Files">Rockford Files novels

  35. The Green Bottle
  36. ''Devil on My Doorstep''

    Non-series

  • *When the Dark Man Calls
  • *''Exercise in Terror''

    Story collections

  • Hidden and Other Stories
  • ''The Man Who Beat the System and Other Stories''

    Other fiction

  • Kolchak: The Night Stalker
  • * Fever Pitch
  • * Kolchak the Night Stalker, Volume 1
  • * ''Kolchak: The Night Stalker Chronicles''

    As editor

  • Opening Shots
  • Mystery in the Sunshine State
  • Show Business Is Murder
  • ''On a Raven's Wing: New Tales in Honor of Edgar Allan Poe''

    Non-fiction

  • A Biographical Study of the Career of Donald Siegel and an Analysis of His Films
  • Clint Eastwood
  • American Film Genres: Approaches to a Critical Theory of Popular Film
  • Don Siegel, Director
  • Ingmar Bergman: Essays in Criticism
  • John Huston: Maker of Magic
  • Coop: The Life and Legend of Gary Cooper
  • Basic Filmmaking
  • Writing for Television
  • American Television Genres
  • ''Behind the Mystery: Top Mystery Writers Interviewed''

    Filmography

  • Once Upon a Time in America
  • Enemy Territory
  • Fréquence meurtre
  • Woman in the Wind
  • Hidden Fears
  • A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Immune to Murder"

    Plays

  • The Final Toast
  • ''Books''