CLASSIC IN THE DOCK

Classic cars, mystery and murder!

If you love classic cars and mystery, Classic in the Dock is certain to satisfy.  Even if you don't love classic cars, Amy Myers will have you appreciating the immense impact that a car of exceptional beauty and history can have.  

Jack Colby is a car detective. He divides his time between seeking out and restoring classic cars for collectors and assisting the local CID with car crimes.  

When an old friend, Giovanni, a renowned painter of classic cars, arrives unexpectedly its a pleasant surprise.  Even more surprising is Giovanni's news - he is on his way to Plumshaw Manor to paint a famous 1930s Alfa Romeo race car.  The Comptons are not known for their hospitality or interest in classic cars.  Jack's doubts come to fruition when he receives a call later that evening - Giovanni has been arrested for murder!  Hugh Compton, the heir of the Compton estate has gone missing and is presumed dead.

What logical motive could Giovanni have?  He has no connection to the Compton family, or does he?  Is the murder linked to the feud over development of the village which has the Makepeace family and the Comptons at each others's throats?  If Jack Colby is to clear his friend's name, he will have to look to the past as well as the present to find a killer.

I was impressed with the amount of research that clearly went into the development of this novel.  Historical fact is embellished, blended seamlessly with the plot to create a fantastic and believable story.  

Classic in the Dock is the 7th Jack Colby novel.  The books do not have to be read in order.

Classic in the Dock is available for preorder and will be released September 1, 2015

I received a copy of Classic in the Dock from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review

--Crittermom

Jack Colby is a classic car restorer working in idyllic surroundings in the Kent countryside.  A friend of his father,  Giovanni Donati, an artist who paints pictures of cars with their owners comes to see him before he goes on to a nearby village to see a 1930s Alfa Romeo and its owner.  

Unfortunately Giovanni immediately becomes embroiled in the disappearance of the son of the owner of the historic car.  Blood is found in his car and it seems he was the last person to see the missing man.  Jack has connections with the police and has investigated some crimes with them before and Giovanni asks him for his help.

Jack soon becomes mixed up with two feuding local families and murder and mayhem soon ensue.  I enjoyed this interesting mystery and liked the picture it paints of warring village families.  You do get villages like this where one family won't speak to another family.

I liked Jack as a character and thought the book was well plotted.  I shall be looking out for more books in this series as I think the background is a little different from the norm.  There is a short section at the end of the book giving more information about the classic cars mentioned in the text for those who are interested.  I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review

This is the first Jack Colby Book I have read but it will not be the last.  My husband and I both read this book since we also have an Alfa gathering dust in the garage.  I enjoyed the characters and the classic car background.  There are a lot of characters, mysteries and subplots to keep track of.  There are current as well as older mysteries. I figured out some of the mysteries but others took me by surprise.  The author does a good job of keeping tracking of everything and resolving it all in the end. Enjoy this fun ride through the English Countryside is a classic Car.

No, Jack Colby, classic car detective, is not a hyphenated Italian.  I'm reviewing this book because the book has two major characters who are Italian.  One is a man, Giovanni, and the other is an Alfa Romeo from 1938.  The latter was a, fictitious, contender in the Mille Miglia, Italy's famous road race.  That makes this a book for fans of traditional murder mysteries and Italian classic cars.

"the Alfa Romeo... I was certain was a focal point of interest in the case"

Classic in the Dock is book 7 in the Jack Colby Classic Car Mysteries.  The amateur detective in this English traditional murder mystery series is Jack Colby, a car fanatic, owner of a classic car restoration company, and a part-time car detective for the local police.  This book in the series features many Italians and Anglo-Italians, as well as more than one classic Italian cars.

Like all good amateur detectives in traditional mysteries, Jack has a friend on the police force who provides useful information, and access to crime scenes.  Also in line with the genre, Jack spends much time making theories, testing them and investigating by interviewing suspects and witnesses, and explaining the case and all its twists and turns to various people, and to his principle sounding board, who is his live-in love interest, Louise, an actress.  

Part of the mystery Jack Colby uncovers concerns events that happened circa 1938 in Italy.  The author describes some of the:

"hardships endured by the Italian civil population and Partisans in the north of the country during the Second World War"

The narrative style is first person by Jack Colby, but it is unclear when the character is supposed to have written down his narrative.  This leads to some awkward switching between past and present tense.

The Italian character, Giovanni, is assumed to be a killer because of the stereotype of the "hot-headed" Italian.  After a while, I did find the depiction of Giovanni's Italian accent when speaking English to be tedious reading, but that is always a risk when an author represents accents in print.

One big difficulty for Jack in trying to help his friend Giovanni, is Giovanni himself, who is the prime suspect in a murder case.

"Giovanni, who I was struggling to save from a murder charge, had, it seemed, been as economical with the truth as he was uneconomical with flowing wine." 

There is very much an English village and rural setting for the book, including a Manor house and aristocratic family.  If you are a fan of the Midsomer Murder books and TV films, you might enjoy this series too.  

Please visit my full and illustrated review at Italophile Book Reviews.  http://italophilebookreviews.blogspot.nl/2015/09/classic-in-dock-jack-colby-mystery-by.html