Classic Cashes In

November 10, 2014
A 1936 Packard Series 120 Sedan is the focus of Myers’s ably constructed sixth Jack Colby mystery (after 2014’s Classic in the Pits), though this entry is short of the usual fascinating trivia about classic cars. Banker Philip Moxton hires Colby, who runs the Frogs Hill Classic Car Restoration Company and works freelance for the Kent Police Car Crime Unit, to buy a prized Packard for him so that he may remain unknown to the seller, actor Tom Herrick. This simple, lucrative transaction turns ugly when Colby discovers that the Moxton and Herrick families have been in conflict for many years. Tracing the history of this dispute becomes paramount after it leads to murder, but it also proves dangerous. A cast of dodgy, grasping characters commit crimes from bank robbery to car theft, and a legacy of millions may hinge on Colby’s detective abilities. Colby navigates the flow of treacherous suspects as easily as the Packard handles the road.

June 24, 2013
Two cases preoccupy amiable Jack Colby in Myers’s engaging fourth mystery featuring the classic car expert (after 2012’s Classic in the Clouds). Jack’s spoiled, demanding ex-wife, Eva, who ran off with Mexican musician Carlos Mendez 20 years earlier and has now returned to Maidstone, Kent, needs Jack’s help. Carlos’s body has turned up on the River Medway towpath. Meanwhile, attractive Daisy Croft wants Jack to find her stolen Morris Minor, which she calls “Melody.” In amusing and confusing fashion, Daisy’s car is repeatedly found only to disappear just as often. With Eva’s arrest for Carlos’s murder, Jack has to revisit Carlos’s old band mates and a long-ago robbery in an effort to prove her innocence. Dotty archeologist Ambrose Fairbourne and Daisy’s unusual “gran,” Belinda Fever, provide enigmatic clues. A wealth of classic car lore adds to the fun. Agent: Dorothy Lumley, Dorian Literary Agency (U.K.).

August 1, 2013

Jack has his hands full investigating two cases, one involving his ex-wife, and the other involving a stolen car. In this fourth entry from Myers (after Classic in the Clouds), Jack unearths more family history than expected.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2015
Jack Colby, classic auto aficionado and car detective, returns in his sixth autocentric mystery. When Colby is commissioned to make an anonymous purchase of a rare Packard Series 120 Sedan, it seems like an easy and a lucrative assignment. When he discovers that the buyer and the seller are members of feuding families, however, he investigates the source of their long-standing animosity. Delving back into time proves to be as dangerous as driving in reverse, and murder quickly follows. As Jack races against the clock to unravel a mystery rooted in the past, plenty of car trivia steers the cozy plot.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)