‘Classic At Bay’ by Amy Myers

Published by Published by Severn House,
31 March 2016. 
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8608-8

Jack Colby owns and runs his classic car repair business from his home at Frogs Hill in Kent. He also works as a consultant for the Kent Car Crime Unit whenever a crime seems to be within his field of expertise. Jack has heard of Adora Ferne, who in the Sixties was a notorious cabaret singer at a London club called The Three Parrots, but Jack's main interest in her is that she possesses twelve classic Jaguar cars. Rumour has it that Adora was given these cars by her ex-lovers and ex-husbands and Jack is surprised when Adora's manager, Danny Carter, commissions him to approach the Earl of Storrington with an offer to buy his rare Jaguar sports car: 'the thirteenth car'. Jack finds the Earl charming and civilised but resolute in his refusal to sell his car and Jack suspects that the Earl had also once been one of Adora's lovers.

When Jack reports back to Adora, he is told that she has been receiving anonymous letters and death threats, which Jack reports to the police. Soon after this the first death occurs, but it is not Adora who dies.

Jack works with the Kent Police to discover the truth behind the murder, which he believes is tied to the past and what happened at the Three Parrots fifty years previously, when one of Adora's lovers had been killed. He tries to discover the truth behind the twelve beautiful Jaguars and the men who donated them and the secret behind the elusive thirteenth car, but perhaps the greatest mystery of all that puzzles Jack is the character of Adora and whether she is a blackmailer or an enchantress. As the death toll mounts, Jack knows he has to discover the truth quickly before Adora also becomes a victim.

Classic at Bay is the eighth book in the series featuring Jack Colby. It is a delightful read, with well-drawn, likeable characters, many of whom are old friends from previous books, and a fascinating, multi-layered plot. This a page-turner and I recommend it.

------

Reviewer: Carol Westron

Amy Myers worked as a director in a London publishing firm, before realising her dream to become a writer. Her first series featured detective, August Didier, a half French, half English master chef in late Victorian and Edwardian times. She is currently writing a series with her American husband James Myers, featuring Jack Colby, car detective.  Classic in the Pits, is the fifth in the series, its successor, Classic Cashes In, will follow later this year.  Amy also writes historical novels and suspense under the name Harriet Hudson.

http://www.amymyers.net/

Carol Westron is a successful short story writer and a Creative Writing teacher.  She is the moderator for the cosy/historical crime panel, The Deadly Dames.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  The Terminal Velocity of Cats is the first in her Scene of Crimes novels, was published July 2013. Her second book About the Children was published in May 2014.

www.carolwestron.com