Delano Ames (May 29, 1906 – January 1987) was an American writer of detective stories. Ames was the author of some 20 books, many of them featuring a husband and wife detective team of amateurs named Dagobert and Jane Brown. A later series of novels involved a character named Juan Lorca, of the Spanish Civil Guard, who solved local mysteries.
Ames married Australian-born writer Maysie Coucher Ames (1901–1971) in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1929. Under the pen name Maysie Greig, she was a prolific author of light-hearted romance novels. They divorced on 17 April 1937.
Ames lived in England for the next few years, where he married his second wife, Kit, and was assigned as a British intelligence officer during World War II. He also worked on anthologies on mythology and as a translator for Larousse in France. His last book was an introduction for a book of photography of Spain in 1971.
Ames' books were reviewed frequently in prominent publications such as the New York Times and Kirkus Reviews, and were generally reviewed positively though not viewed as high art. The New York Times called 1949's She Shall Have Murder "amiable," comparing Dagobert Brown to Dorothy L. Sayers' detective Lord Peter Wimsey.[2] Kirkus Reviews called his 1959 novel For Old Crime's Sake "fuzz-brained fluff for light entertainment."[3]
Works
Jane and Dagobert Brown series
She Shall Have Murder. Hodder & Stoughton (1948); Reprinted Rue Morgue Press (2008). Filmed under the same title in 1950
Murder Begins at Home. Hodder & Stoughton (1949)
Corpse Diplomatique. Hodder (1950) & Subsequently, Penguin Books - his best known and most widely available book
Death of a Fellow Traveller. Hodder & Stoughton (1950)
