No Mourning for the Matador

Jane and Dagobert Brown #7

by Delano Ames

Fiction. Witty sophisticated husband and wife who are successful at solving murders find themselves with some cash in hand and lightheartedly go to Spain in search of a much-needed rest. It never materializes because their first venture to a bullfight in Barcelona involves them in the murder of the matador. They uncover a labyrinth of clues that take them from the most expensive hotel to the humblest inn, from splashy nightclubs to colorful bistros, where feeling flares up under the strangest provocation. The gaiety of Barcelona provides a vivid background, and once again a story of suspense and entertainment develops around the clever couple long associated with Delano Ames' stories about Jane and Dagobert. Other titles about this Murder, Maestro, Please and The Body on Page One.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

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 Greig (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.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane and Dagobert are visiting Barcelona and go to the bullfight to see the English (actually Irish, but it's all one to the Spanish) torero Denis St. John. Unfortunately, he is killed in the arena. That night, they meet one of his assistants at a local dive, who offers Dagobert a cigarette that turns out to be drugged. Where did the cigarette come from? Jane had observed St. John smoking just before his fatal fight. They meet St. John's impecunious, contentious family, a wealthy American divorcee, an American seaman who's writing a dissertation on Calderon, and a beautiful young half-Spanish girl who was St. John's fiancee, as well as an assortment of chicas, bartenders and thugs.

[dmayr · Rating 4 out of 5]

The matador whom nobody mourned for is the Tooting Toreador, El Ingles Denis St. John, who is killed in a bullfight in Barcelona in suspicious circumstances. Well, suspicious anyway in the eyes of holidaying couple Jane and Dagobert Brown. Colorful and chaotic in an enjoyable way. Didn't guess the killer nor the motive.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...