The time is January 1942, and Toby Peters' services have just been retained by the private eye's strangest client: Bela Lugosi, who, over a decade after frightening millions of Americans with his depiction of the notorious Count Dracula, is now being stalked by a very real, very deadly, all-too-human creature of darkness intent on punishing the fading actor for perceived slights made against the vapiric race. Before Peters can get a handle on the situation, though, his business suddenly doubles in sound and fury when William Faulkner, the nation's most distinguished author gone Hollywood, is accused of killing a movie agent he hardly knew. Can even Peters find the connection between the two cases before he falls prey to the sinister machinations of the children of the night...?
Stuart M. Kaminsky (1934-2009) was one of the most prolific crime fiction authors of the last four decades. Born in Chicago, Kaminsky penned more than sixty novels over his lifetime. In 1981's Death of a Dissident, Kaminsky debuted Moscow police detective Porfiry Rostnikov, whose stories were praised for their accurate depiction of Soviet life. He died in St. Louis in 2009.