The Duesenberg Caper

Corea (Scarback) bases this semi-picaresque novel on a real-world mystery involving one of the most famous and potentially valuable automobiles ever built, a 1935 Duesenberg owned by King Victor Emmanuel of Italy. The magnificent car disappeared during WWII. Was it destroyed in a bombing raid or artillery barrage? Was it in the cargo hold of a ship that went to the bottom of the Tyrrhenian Sea, separating Sicily from the Italian mainland? Or does it still exist, hidden in a cave or in the cellar beneath a castle? While on vacation in Sicily, Andrew P. Robinson III and his bride, Ada, go in search of the missing Duesenberg. Blundering into Sicilian high society when Robinson is mistaken for his father, a U.S. Supreme Court justice, the couple find themselves tangled in a web of treachery, grand theft, torture, and murder. The appealing protagonists make up in part for glacial pacing and stiff prose. Still, lovers of classic automobiles will find the sometimes excessive detail irresistible. (Sept.)