Delano Ames

I hadn't read these three books by Delano Ames for at least thirty years, and I can't say they have improved with the passage of time.  The series features a young English couple, Dagobert and Jane Hamish Brown, who have no particular aim in life but to go out drinking and dancing as often as possible.  Dagobert is a dilettante whose chief occupation seems to be to concoct fanciful plots involving real crimes they encounter so that Jane can write them up as mystery novels to fund the aimless life they seem to lead.  

I accidentally read them in reverse order of publication; the first one by date of publication, She Shall Have Murder, has the most comprehensible plot of the three and the most understandable cast of potential suspects.  Sadly, it's downhill from there.  

 She Shall Have Murder. 1949.  This book introduces the two main characters, Dagobert Brown and Jane Hamish.  Jane works in an attorney's office; a client dies and Dagobert decides that she must have been murdered by someone who works in the office.  Grade: B-.  

Corpse Diplomatique, 1950.  Possible assassination of a diplomat, or was the person who was actually shot the intended victim after all?  Plot gets a bit tedious.  I'm getting very tired of Dagobert and with Jane for putting up with him.   Grade:  C.

Murder, Maestro Please, 1952  Murder at a music festival in the Pyrenees.  Still not sure who did it or why.  Grade:  C.