3.5* ( )

Not bad. Didn't provide enough information for reader to figure it out. Characters ok but one-dimensional. Story good enough to keep me reading. ( )

Well, that was almost a Greek tragedy.

1930's England and Amory's cousin begs her by letter to join a house party at the Lyonsgate Estate; the first house party the estate has seen since a tragic weekend 7 years prior and with the exception of Amory and her husband, it's the same roster of guests. They've all been brought back together by one woman who is determined to rake up all the secrets of the past and what really happened on that 'lost' weekend.

The series started with Amory estranged from her playboy husband, but instead of taking the obvious route - divorce and future romantic entanglements - the author brings Amory and her husband Milo back together for reconciliation. Frankly I didn't think I'd like it and she sure didn't do much to sell Milo's legendary charm to the reader. But three books in and I've warmed to Milo and find I don't mind him sticking around at all.

The plotting was amazing, frankly. I never had a hint of where she was taking this story until the very end and when I read it, had to do a double take to make sure I'd read the right name. I don't often trot out comparisons, but really, this was a mystery worthy of the era it's set in; very Christie-esque.

I rated it slightly lower than I usually would for such an outstanding mystery because the pacing was a bit slow; I never got bored or distracted, but neither did I feel antagonistic about being interrupted. I might, upon further consideration, up it to 4.5, but for now it's a very, very solid 4 stars. ( )

Milo & Amory are back together (he is such a playboy, despite being Amory's husband), when she is asked by her cousin Laurel to come and stay with her @ Lyonsgate (?) an old country estate where a dreadful murder took place....

Years past, a group of dilettantes were having a houseparty at Lyonsgate when one of the guests was found dead lying dead in the snow the next morning.

All but one of the houseguests, Amory's cousin Laurel, had hidden secrets, when less than a year later one of the guests wrote a true-to-life fictionalized account of the disastrous weekend, instigating the suicide of the person most likely to have been the murderer....

The authoress, who had returned from Kenya with her secretary/lover, requested that all living guests be reunited as she was writing a sequel with the shocking revelation of what really happened, retracting her original accusation of whom the murderer was.

She is later found stabbed to death and Amory & Milo are put into the dangerous position of uncovering everyones' secrets and finding out what really happened on that night so long ago....

I find this series to be very satisfying, interesting, and fast reading ( )

The third outing for amateur sleuth Amory Ames and her debonair husband Milo, finds them at Lyonsgate, the country house of her cousin Laurel's friend Reggie Lyons. The party gathered there consists of the same people (minus the Ames') who seven years ago were in residence when a young man was found dead in the snow.
Months later a thinly disguised novel is published by Isobel Van Allen, one of the party, accusing one of the group of murder. Unable to bear the the accusation , the implicated man kills himself.
Now, seven years later Isobel has summoned the same group of people and stuns everyone by announcing she is writing another novel - this time telling the truth. That night she is murdered and Amory swings into investigative mode. Once again Weaver has written a good mystery with a fine eye for period detail. ( )