Amory Ames Mysteries

Amory Ames might be wealthy, but she is unhappily married to playboy Milo and so willingly accepts her former fiancé Gil Trent's plea for help in preventing his sister Emmeline from meeting a similar fate. Amory and Gil set off for the Brightwell, a sprawling seaside hotel in Devon where Emmeline and her intended, Rupert Howe, are holidaying. An unresolved history between Gil and Rupert surfaces, and after a late-night quarrel the luxurious hotel is one guest fewer by morning.

Amory Ames is investigating the disappearance of valuable jewellery snatched at a dinner party and lays a trap to catch the culprit at a lavish masked ball hosted by Viscount Dunmore. She isn’t expecting one of the illustrious party guests to wind up dead....

February 1933. Receiving a mysterious summons from her cousin Laurel, Amory Ames and her playboy husband, Milo, set off for the Lyonsgate estate posthaste. The house was the scene of a tragic accident seven years ago, when a reckless party of wild young things got out of hand, but it seems a mystery lingers on as the same guests reassemble, and Amory is sure that the notorious Isobel Van Allen stands at the centre of it. When a desperate person turns to murder, it’s up to Amory and Milo to sort through a web of scandal and lies to uncover the truth and the identity of a killer.

Amory and Milo plan to quietly winter in Italy. But Amory receives an urgent summons to the English countryside. There, Amory and Milo are surprised to discover a group of guests have been invited, led by socialite Isobel Van Allen. Isobel has returned to England after years of social exile to write a sequel to her scandalous first book. Her second incriminating volume, she warns the house's occupants - all of whom were present when one of their companions was killed years ago - will tell everything that really happened that fateful night.

When Milo Ames receives a troubling letter from his childhood nanny, Madame Nanette, he and Amory travel to Paris, where they are soon embroiled in a mystery surrounding the death of a famous parfumier. The more Amory and Milo look into the motives of industry rivals and heirs who are vying for control of his perfume empire, the more they are convinced that Nanette may be right. 

Walking through London's West End after a night at the theatre, Amory Ames and her husband, Milo, run into old friends, the wealthy investor and former actor Gerard Holloway and his wife, Georgina. When Holloway invites them to the dress rehearsal of a new play he is directing, Amory readily accepts. However, she is shocked to learn that Holloway has cast his mistress, actress Flora Bell, in the lead role.