Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
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'A story that tickles and tantalizes but never exhausts the readers' patience or ingenuity.' Times Literary Supplement 'Thoroughly entertaining in a not too solemn way.' Books
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When a man plunges down a cliff, two adventurous young friends decide to find his killer! While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. With his final breath the man opens his eyes and says, 'Why didn't they ask Evans?' Haunted by these words, Bobby and his vivacious companion, Frankie, set out to solve a mystery that will bring them into mortal danger!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Light-hearted Christie.,
By
This review is from: Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (Paperback)
This is one of Dame Agatha's more light-hearted romps. No Poirot, no Jane Marple, or Inspector Japp, or even Tommy and Tuppence. Instead a very likeable pair of Bright Young Things (and I don't normally like them in the early Christie works!), called Lady Frances (Frankie to her friends) Derwent, and Bobby Jones. Bobby is the sort of handsome, amiable, but not exactly intellectual young man that the author clearly enjoyed writing about, and Frankie is another of the strong, spirited and resourceful young women who are often a staple of the classic Christie novel. The title "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" (and if you don't know the story, I guarantee you'll never guess who Evans turns out to be!), are the suitably cryptic words of a dying man who has fallen off a cliff. Add to the mix a spooky sanatorium, a gang of international drug-dealers (Christie-style), a Terry-Thomas style bounder, and plenty of madcap adventures, and you have a very fast-paced enjoyable read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An underrated gem,
By
This review is from: Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (Paperback)
A surprising success! "Why Didn't They Ask Evans" is a real romper of a detective story, packed full of amateur sleuths, red herrings, and clever hints. Particularly well written is the developing relationship between the two protagonists, Frankie and Bobbie. Christie, for all her failings, always manages to write romances charmingly and she does not disappoint here: I found myself rooting for the pair of them to get together the whole way through.
All things considered, this is classic Christie stuff, and probably deserves to be more widely-read than I suspect it is. Even leaving aside the romance, the mystery is intriguing and original, and I was honestly kept guessing until the very end. Furthermore, unlike some of her novels, little clues are dropped here and there regarding the villain's inconsistency in his story, so that the reader can do some sleuthing along with Frankie and Bobbie. The identity of Evans, as the other reader points out, isn't really something that can be deducted, which is slightly disappointing - however, the book isn't really *about* discovering Evans' identity. It is someone who the reader meets along the way, so keep an open mind if you want to have a guess! The story does take a turn for the bizarre three-quarters of the way through: the heroes are kidnapped and the story becomes slightly more implausible from that point on. This criticism is minor, however; really, the book is Christie at her absolute finest. It is witty, clever, and the plot twists and turns throughout. Fully recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why Didn't She Make This A Series?,
By
This review is from: Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (Paperback)
I specifically chose `Why Didn't They Ask Evans?' as my latest Christie read, and I have a fair few, because it was one I know I have never seen on the telly (though I have heard that it became a Marple TV show despite her not being in the book at all?!?) and so as I opened the book I genuinely had no idea what I was going to be greeted by. When I started reading about golf I thought `oh no Agatha' but four pages later, or a chapter in Christie terms, Bobby the golfer in question has discovered a body at the bottom of the cliff when his ball goes AWOL. As he waits with the body, his friend having gone to get the police, the man who is not quite dead mutters `Why didn't they ask Evans?' before taking his last breath.
This is dismissed as a tragic accident however after Bobby's friend Lady Frances Derwent (or `Frankie') reminds him of the words he lets the deceased's family know. Soon after strange things start to happen such as mysterious job offers in Buenos Aires and even Bobby being poisoned and so Frankie and Bobby decide to play sleuths leading them into a dark mystery involving the 1930's upper classes, dark Granges and sinister nursing homes. It's absolutely brilliant stuff; I could barely put it down. Some people have said this is a `light hearted romp' in Christie's career and there is a feeling of an adult `Famous Five adventure' about it, well more a slightly hapless duo in this case. Don't let that stop you reading it though because the characters are superb (especially the wonderful head strong Frankie who calls someone a b*tch within seconds of being gracing a page with her presence) the plot has lots of twists and there are more red herrings that you could find at a fishmongers. Oh and Christie very cleverly and wryly shows you just how easy it was to work it out, even though it's unlikely you will - seriously, in the final chapters as the lead characters discuss it. This could be my favourite Christie yet! I am slightly gutted she didnt make this a series.
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