You Bet Your Life

It’s 1941 and the Marx Brothers’ first movie for MGM, Go West , has the country in stitches. But now Chico Marx is worried he’s going to need stitches when he receives a severed ear in the mail—a simple message from a Chicago bookie who wants $120,000, or else. Chico is baffled because, although he loves to gamble, he’s never made a bet in Chicago. Desperate, he turns to the king of Hollywood, Louis B. Mayer, who puts in a call to Toby Peters.

A Hollywood private detective who’s proven himself adept at keeping scandals out of the tabloids, Peters flies to Florida for an interview with Al Capone, deposed lord of the Chicago underworld. The retired bootlegger’s mind has gone soft, and he doesn’t know anything about Chico’s bookie, but he suggests Peters speak to his brother. With Scarface’s good word as an introduction, the PI heads to Chicago. But it will take more than a good sense of humor to keep Groucho, Harpo, and especially Chico from getting axed.

Edgar Award–winner Stuart Kaminsky’s “Toby Peters series was a delight. They were written with more than a dash of humor and featured a variety of improbable real-life characters, ranging from the Marx Brothers to Judy Garland” ( Library Journal ).