Islands of Deception

Some of the characters in Islands of Deception have an interesting taste for cars. The Dodge Dart and the Shelby GT500 that make an appearance in the book are polar opposites as far as the type of car, but they both have ties to my past. 

In the 1970s I learned to drive with my dad’s Plymouth Duster, a cousin to the Dodge Dart. It had an indestructible slant six engine and a column-mounted, three-speed, manual shift (nicknamed “three on a tree”). This was the car I used when doing my driver’s training with my learner’s permit. There was something about that car that was fun to drive.

The story behind the Shelby GT500 making an appearance in the book is a nod to the Shelby Cobra. When I worked as a writer at an ad agency in Southfield, Michigan, my supervisor owned an Austin Healey, a car with ties to Carrol Shelby. One day he drove it to work and at lunchtime he gave me a ride in it. It’s hard to describe the experience of riding in a pure sports car as we slipped effortlessly along freeways and side roads on a warm summer day.

When I needed a practical, car for one of my characters to drive, a four-door Dodge Dart with column shift seemed a logical choice (as opposed to the two-door Duster). When a fast car was needed, I went with a modern Shelby GT500 since an Austin Healey or Shelby Cobra didn’t seem to fit the modern context of the book.