by Robert Baty

R.J. Buckley Publishing, $19.00, 324 pages

‘Vintage’ Connor, so-called because of his love for vintage cars (mostly the European variety), has channeled this near-obsession into a new occupation. He chases down and finds very special automobiles for his very special customers. The cars easily sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that many dollars can easily lead to danger. But Vintage can handle it, Ray Connor was a homicide detective before he retired.

Now that his own Porsche has been stolen, he’s bound to investigate. But then, Evie, the love of his life reappears, to ask him to investigate the death of her daughter. She’s convinced it was murder but the police insist it was suicide. However, cops also know ‘once a cop, always a cop’ and ‘everybody lies’ were (and probably still are) the two great truths of that career.

Author Robert Baty obviously knows the cop world and the car world, and probably a couple of others he wishes he didn’t. Although the connection to the title is a bit vague, he writes short chapters filled with noir, grit, street language and lots of action.

Kelly Ferjutz