Classic in the Pits: A Case for Jack Colby, the Car Detective

Classic car enthusiasts will best appreciate Myers’s fifth mystery featuring Jack Colby (after 2013’s Classic Mistake). Colby, who runs a car restoration business and freelances for the Kent Police Car Crime Unit, is dismayed to learn that the Old Herne Club for Motoring and Flying Enthusiasts is closing soon. Meanwhile, the police have asked him to look into the theft of a classic Porsche that belongs to the Old Herne’s manager. The stakes rise with the discovery of a body, “very bloody, very mangled,” during the club’s annual party, called the Swoosh. Readers should be prepared for a middling mystery and an unmemorable lead. And the author’s passion for the world of cars just doesn’t get transmitted to those who lack it (e.g., “a De Dion Bouton driven side by side with a stately Lancaster and sporty Austin-Healey was a mesmerizing sight”). Agent: Dorothy Lumley, Dorian Literary Agency (U.K.). (Apr.)