A DANGEROUS ENGAGEMENT by Ashley Weaver

A DANGEROUS ENGAGEMENT is the sixth book in Ashley Weaver’s “Amory Ames” historical mystery series. Unlike some of the previous books in this series, A DANGEROUS ENGAGEMENT is no drawing room murder mystery. This story dips into the murky world of 1930s gangsters and bootleggers. Amory Ames visits New York City with her husband Milo to attend her friend Tabitha’s wedding, but gets involved in another tangled mystery. Added to the various mysteries connected to the Alden family’s friends and associates, is the very apparent (to everyone except Amory) fact that Amory is pregnant. Everyone looks like a suspect in this story – including the members of the wedding party.

Although Amory and Tabitha are friends, I like how Amory eventually realizes that she may not know her friend as well as she thought she did. Ashley Weaver plays around with classic characters – the gangster, the dewy-eyed good girl, the shady friend – but as the story progresses, most of the characters prove to be realistically flawed with surprising finer points to their characters. A few characters in A DANGEROUS ENGAGEMENT are desperate and take some risks out of that desperation. There are also a lot of characters who have a hidden side, or a hidden aspect of their lives. While they may hold their cards close to their vests, and work different angles on this mystery, I like how Amory and Milo work toward the same goal in this story and take some time for a little romance. The danger intensifies for this couple as they get closer to the truth, and there are a few close calls.

A DANGEROUS ENGAGEMENT is an entertaining mystery involving marriage, murder, and sunny dispositions hiding dark motivations. You can’t go wrong with listening to Cole Porter for an apt soundtrack to this tale of young love and secrets. I enjoyed the friendship chemistry between Leon De Lora and this sleuthing couple and wouldn’t mind if he turned up in future mysteries. I look forward to Ashley Weaver’s next “Amory Ames” mystery.

A Dangerous Engagement is the stylish, charming sixth novel in the Edgar-nominated Amory Ames mystery series by Ashley Weaver, set in 1930s New York.

As they travel by ship to New York for her childhood friend Tabitha’s wedding, Amory Ames gazes out at the city’s iconic skyline, excited by the prospect of being a bridesmaid. Her husband Milo, however, is convinced their trip will be deadly dull, since Prohibition is in full swing. But when a member of the wedding party is found murdered on the front steps of the bride’s home, the happy plans take a darker twist.

Amory discovers that the dead groomsman has links to the notorious—and notoriously handsome—gangster Leon De Lora, and soon she and Milo find themselves drawn into another mystery. While the police seem to think that New York’s criminal underworld is at play, Amory feels they can’t ignore the wedding party either. Tabitha’s fiancé Tom Smith appears to be a good man, but he has secrets of his own, and the others in the group seem strangely unaffected by the death of their friend . . .

In an unfamiliar city, not knowing who they can trust, Milo and Amory are drawn into the glamorous, dangerous world of nightclubs and bootleggers. But as they draw closer to unraveling the web of lies and half-truths the murdered man has left in his wake, the killer is weaving a web of his own.