Want fewer ads?

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.

Born in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Delano's father Benjamin worked for the local newspaper, but moved the family in 1917 to New Mexico.

Ames married Australian born writer, Maysie Grieg (1901-1971) in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1929. Greig was a prolific author of light-hearted romance novels. They divorced in 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.

He died in Madrid, Spain, in January 1987.

His novels include:

• They Journey by Night. Hodder & Stoughton (1932)
• No Traveller Returns. Nicholson (1934)
• A Double Bed on Olympus (1936)
• The Cornish Coast Conspiracy. Amalgamated Press (1942)
• He Found Himself Murdered. Swan (1947)
• She Shall Have Murder. Hodder & Stoughton (1948); Reprinted Rue Morge Press 2008
• 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)
• The Body on Page One. Hodder & Stoughton (1951)
• Murder, Maestro, Please. Hodder & Stoughton (1952)
• No Mourning for the Matador. Hodder & Stoughton (1953)
• Crime, Gentlemen, Please. Hodder & Stoughton (1954)
• Landscape with Corpse. Hodder & Stoughton (1955)
• Crime Out of Mind. Hodder & Stoughton (1956)
• She Wouldn't Say Who. Hodder & Stoughton (1957)
• Lucky Jane. Hodder & Stoughton (1959)
• The Man in the Tricorn Hat. Methuen (1960)
• The Man with Three Jaguars. Methuen (1961)
• The Man with Three Chins. Methuen (1965)
• The Man with Three Passports. Methuen (1967).

Other works include

• History of the Piano by Henry Closson, Translated by Delano Ames. Paul Elek 1947

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Delano Ames", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0