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Ashcombe Classic Cars
Cosy Mystery Series
Welcome to Ashcombe Classic Cars, a small, family-run garage tucked away in the Somerset countryside, where engines misbehave, customers tell half the story, and mysteries tend to roll in on four wheels.
What begins as a simple repair job often turns into something far stranger — a sabotaged vehicle, a suspicious accident, a panicked customer with a secret, or a situation that definitely wasn’t highlighted in the owner’s manual.
With a cast of mechanics, drivers, locals, and the occasional irate motorist, the Ashcombe Classic Cars mysteries blend humour, village life, mechanical chaos, and classic cosy crime. Every case comes with a twist, a laugh, and the comforting certainty that even the most peculiar breakdown can lead to a satisfying solution.
Expect quirky characters, unexpected clues, rural gossip, and mysteries with a motoring flavour.
If you enjoy cosies with charm, camaraderie, and just a little grease under the fingernails, it’s time to visit Ashcombe.
The Ghost Chauffeur
Book 1 in the series
A classic car. A wartime love story. A modern mystery. The past won't stay parked at Ashcombe.
When a vintage Daimler is hired for a ghost story film, siblings Billy and Ollie Ashcombe expect flat batteries and fussy actors—not phantom sightings, sabotage, and a buried 1940s love affair.
As whispers swirl around their classic car workshop in the quiet Dorset village of Langley St Michael, the Ashcombes uncover a trail of secrets hidden in the heart of the old vehicle—letters, heirlooms, and the last hope of two lovers who vanished during the war.
Caught between local legends, film set theatrics, and a rival with a suspiciously perfect restoration, Billy and Ollie must steer through layers of misdirection, danger, and half-truths to preserve a story long forgotten. Because some vehicles carry more than just history—some carry unfinished business.
Full of charm, mystery, and motor oil, The Ghost Chauffeur is the first in the Ashcombe Classic Cars Mysteries—a witty, warm-hearted series where every classic car has a secret.
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The Engine That Shouldn't Run
Book 2 in the series
A forgotten car. A buried truth. And an engine that refuses to obey.
When classic car restorers Billy and Ollie Ashcombe take on a vintage coupe with a mysterious past, they expect rust and loose bolts—not buried government secrets and experimental technology decades ahead of its time.
Hidden beneath the polished chrome and perfect lines is VerdEx R4: an adaptive engine system that doesn’t just respond to its driver—it learns, corrects, and sometimes refuses. As the siblings delve into the coupe’s origins, they uncover a conspiracy of silence, industrial espionage, and a machine so advanced it scared its creators into erasing it.
Now, powerful forces want to reclaim it. Others want it destroyed. But the Ashcombes are determined to let the car speak for itself—before it disappears again.
Smart, sharp, and driven by mystery and mechanics, The Engine That Shouldn’t Run is a high-octane cosy thriller for readers who believe the past never really stalls—it just waits to be restarted.
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The Stunt That Went Wrong
Book 3 in the series
A classic car. A sabotaged stunt. Two siblings in overalls against a studio full of secrets. Ashcombe Motors just crashed into their most dangerous mystery yet.
When a vintage Jaguar hired for a high-octane film nearly kills its star in a spectacular stunt gone very wrong, the blame lands squarely at the door of Ashcombe Motors.
But Billy and Ollie Ashcombe—siblings, classic car restorers, and reluctant sleuths—aren’t about to take the fall for someone else’s sabotage. As they dig into the film’s glossy façade, they discover a tangle of off-the-books hires, whispered threats, and a trail of bent bolts that leads all the way to the top of Castle/Verve Studios.
With their reputation on the line and someone clearly desperate to silence them, the Ashcombes swap spanners for subpoenas and trade rust for risk. From country lanes to red carpets, they’re determined to find out who turned a stunt into a setup—and why a classic car might be worth more wrecked than running.
Full of sharp banter, high-stakes twists, and vintage style, The Stunt Gone Wrong is the third Ashcombe Classic Car Mystery—a cosy, clever ride where the engines are polished, the lies are greasy, and the truth is always under the bonnet.
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Chrome, Clues & Catastrophies
Book 4 in the series
When a legendary prototype car resurfaces — along with sabotage, secrets, and a vanishing heir — Billy and Ollie must untangle a deadly family legacy before someone else crashes out.
A vanished prototype. A fractured family. A legacy engineered for murder.
The Ashcombe duo are back — and this time the danger comes with chrome trim.
When Billy and Ollie Ashcombe receive an unexpected delivery — a mysterious stopwatch linked to a long-forgotten automotive project — they’re pulled into the troubled world of the Rennicks, a once-prestigious engineering dynasty teetering on the edge of collapse. Their late patriarch, Lionel Rennick, was obsessed with perfecting the Shadow Car, a prototype whispered about in motoring circles and feared by those who knew the truth: it was beautiful, groundbreaking… and fatally flawed.
What begins as a favour turns into a full-throttle investigation when old blueprints surface, a critical heir vanishes, and someone starts using the Shadow Car’s deadly design as inspiration for murder. With sabotage, family feuds, and long-buried frauds rising to the surface, Billy and Ollie must navigate an increasingly dangerous trail of lies — all while avoiding the killer who would very much like to keep the Rennick secrets buried.
From derelict workshops to midnight chases on forgotten roads, Chrome, Clues & Catastrophe delivers high-octane cosy mystery with humour, heart, and just enough grease under the fingernails.
Because at Ashcombe Motors, fixing cars is easy — it’s the murder attempts that take longer.
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Sold As Seen
Book 5 in the series
One clever shortcut. One family mistake. And a crime hidden where only a mechanic would ever think to look.
When a batch of military Land Rovers returns from Afghanistan, nothing about them looks unusual. Nothing, that is, except to Ashcombe Motors.
Quietly asked by the Military Police to cast an expert eye over the vehicles before disposal, Ashcombe notice small details that don’t quite add up — weight where there shouldn’t be weight, welds where no welds belong. What they uncover is a smuggling operation concealed inside the chassis of decommissioned army vehicles, invisible to anyone who doesn’t know exactly how machines are put together.
As Ashcombe follow the trail, the investigation leads from military yards to a respected surplus dealer, and finally to a serving soldier who thought he’d found a harmless way to help his family — just once. But small schemes have a habit of growing, and greed proves far more dangerous than ingenuity.
With a memorable cast, dry humour, and a mystery solved through expertise rather than force, this is a cosy crime where the truth isn’t buried deep — just welded shut.