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 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.
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.