Classic Calls the Shots

May 7, 2012
Myers’s second whodunit featuring detective Jack Colby who specializes in restoring classic cars (after 2011’s Classic in the Barn) loses gas early on. When a rare 1935 Auburn 851 SC Boattail Speedster vanishes from the Kent set of American director Bill Wade’s new film, Dark Harvest, Colby gets on the case. Wade, whose previous film was a huge success 10 years earlier, worries that someone is out to sabotage Dark Harvest. Colby charms one of the actors, Louise Shaw, in record time, but the pace picks up only after the murder of a person connected with the film. Even then, as the investigator follows leads to a tragedy linked to Wade’s previous movie—the suicide of its star, with whom the director was involved—the plot doesn’t generate much heat. Readers will hope that Myers gives her amiable lead a more exciting case in the next installment. Agent: Dorothy Lumley, the Dorian Literary Agency.

June 15, 2012
A call to investigate the theft of a 1935 Auburn speedster drops car detective Jack Colby into a difficult and painful case. Because Jack's classic-car restoration business is always on the edge of failure, he helps fill the coffers by investigating car thefts. This time he's called in by the police and famous movie director Bill Wade, who's filming Dark Harvest close to Jack's home in Kent. The Auburn, Wade's car, is featured in the movie, which takes place in the 1930s. Jack soon realizes that all is not well on the set. Wade's wife, Angie, seems to be the core of the trouble. The director's blockbuster success Running Tides ended in tragedy when its star, Wade's lover Margot Croft, shot herself. Now that many of the same cast and crew are working on the new movie, Jack and the police have to wonder if there's a connection when Angie is found shot dead. Sparks fly when Jack meets Louise Shaw, the star of Dark Harvest. They soon become lovers, allowing him access to inside information about the cast and crew. After Jack discovers the Auburn hidden under cover in a nearby parking garage, his local sources intimate that there may be a much larger scheme to steal classic cars. But is that the motive for murder, or does it all come down to what happened in the past? Jack's second case (Classic in the Barn, 2011) offers a thought-provoking look at the world of classic cars and moviemaking along with a swiftly paced mystery.

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