January 30, 1995
Appearing for the 19th time, down-and-out Hollywood detective Toby Peters teams up with Clark Gable in this fast-paced and colorful addition to a very successful series. In 1943, after the movie star receives a poem linking him to a series of deaths (some projected), he hires the detective, whose name was written on the same sheet of paper as the poem, to investigate. Toby is unable to prevent the next killing. Further messages lead to more deaths, with all the victims having one thing in common-they had been extras in Gone with the Wind five years previously during the burning of Atlanta scene when another extra had been killed with a sword. The death had been covered up by the studio. Aided by his usual crew-midget Gunther Wherthman, landlord Jeremy Butler and dentist Sheldon Minck-Toby aims to beat the killer to other potential victims. At the same time, he tries to protect the extremely depressed Gable, who hasn't recovered from the death of his wife, Carole Lombard, the previous year and who resists Toby's attempts to stash him in a safe place. Kaminsky's masterful tale is funny, warm and powerfully moving.