A MOST NOVEL REVENGE is book 3 in Ashley Weaver's Amory
Ames mystery series. Unlike the previous two books in
this series, the usually somewhat estranged couple of
Milo and Amory Ames find themselves in a much better
place in their marriage. When Amory's beloved cousin
Laurel invites them up to Lyonsgate, Amory and Milo work
together to solve a tangled mystery from the past in
order to figure out a murky murder mystery that's a
little more recent. Ashley Weaver tells a captivating
tale of mystery using settings both lush as well as
bleak, while providing a host of curious characters
behaving in even more curious ways.
Edwin Green's death seven years ago, at Reginald Lyons'
Lysongate estate and immortalized in a fictionalized
tell-all by the glamorous and infamous Isobel Van Allen,
casts a pall over everyone who was there when he died.
Years after Edwin's death, one by one, almost everyone
who was there at the time is back again in a kind of
deadly symmetry. I love a story within a story, and A
MOST NOVEL REVENGE fits the bill and kept me thoroughly
engrossed from beginning to end. Ashley Weaver does a
brilliant job of creating atmosphere and building
suspense. When Amory and Milo arrive at Lyonsgate, there
is a feeling of foreboding as if they are there to
prevent some unknown bad thing from happening. Each
supporting character acts as a witness to events of a
tragic past and become suspects when tragedy strikes
again. As Amory tries to sort out motives amid old love
affairs and resentments, she uses Isobel's book as a
guide. As I read along, I caught myself wanting to dig in
and read along with Amory as she uncovers past hurts and
salacious celebrity gossip. Differentiating between
suicide and murder becomes all the harder with each thing
Amory discovers about her fellow guests.
A MOST NOVEL REVENGE is reminiscent of a beautifully
baffling Agatha Christie tale with a dash of Daphne du
Maurier Gothic windswept magic. This is a perfect book to
get lost in and devour. Each book in this series
surpasses the one before it, and is a true delight for
mystery fans. I look to Amory and Milo's next adventure.
“Well, darling, who do you suppose will turn up dead this
time?”
With two murder investigations behind them and their
marriage at last on steady ground, Amory and Milo Ames
intend to winter quietly in Italy. The couple finds their
plans derailed, however, when Amory receives an urgent
summons to the English countryside from her cousin Laurel.
At Lyonsgate, the country house of Laurel’s friend Reginald
Lyons, Amory and Milo are surprised to discover an eccentric
and distinguished group of guests have also been invited,
led by the notorious socialite Isobel Van Allen.
After years of social exile, Isobel has returned to England
to write a sequel to her scandalous first book, the thinly
fictionalized account of a high society murder at the very
country house to which the Ameses have been called. 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. But some secrets are
meant to stay buried, and 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.
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