Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 20th April 2017 by Harper Collins. First published in 1933.
 

From the cover of the book:

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…

***********

One afternoon, ex-naval officer Bobby Jones is enjoying a rather erratic round of golf with his friend Dr Thomas in the sleepy village of Marchbolt. When one of Bobby's wayward shots makes its way over the cliff-edge, he spots the body of an unknown man lying on the rocks below. The man is gravely injured, so while Dr Thomas goes off in search of help, Bobby stays with him. He searches his pockets for clues about who he might be, but all he finds is the photograph of a striking young woman, which he carefully returns to the man's pocket. Bobby is shocked when the man regains consciousness one last time and utters the phrase "Why didn't they ask Evans?" before expiring. In a hurry to get to the church to keep an appointment to play the church organ for his vicar father, Bobby ends up leaving the body in charge of a stranger and thinks little more about it.

The death of the man is pronounced to be accidental at the inquest, but something about the whole affair doesn't seem quite right to Bobby. The photograph that was pictured in the paper as being in the man's possession looks to be of a different woman, and the couple that claimed him as kin were a little odd. Bobby's friend Frances (aka Lady Frances Derwent) dismisses Bobby's concerns, but sometime later Bobby is the victim of an attempt on his life and she begins to suspect that he might be right about there being more to this supposed accidental death than meets the eye - especially when he share the man's dying message with her.

Bobby and Frances decide to investigate the circumstances of the death themselves, and what follows is a highly entertaining crime-solving caper. Frances is a little bored with her upper-class existence and is looking for some excitement. She has the brains and finances to get their scheme off the ground, and Bobby is soon caught up in her plans. They opt to take the bull by the horns and go straight for the man they are sure is the murderer - the very stranger that Bobby left the victim with while he hurried off to his appointment...

This is a complex and twisty mystery that involves undercover shenanigans, a sinister doctor, damsels in distress, drug gangs, and dastardly double-dealing. There is a lot of humour throughout the story, often very much in the P.G. Wodehouse vein, which had me chuckling out loud, and the relationship between Bobby and Frankie is a delight - they bicker all the time, but underneath it all you get the impression that secretly they harbour more than a little friendly affection for each other, and this brings in a gentle romantic element.

There is a lot of excitement and derring-do, and a surprising turn-up-for the books when an unlikely character puts in an appearance to save their skins. I really enjoyed how the question of the identity of the enigmatic Evans nips at the back of your mind throughout, and is only answered just before all the threads come neatly together in a beautifully conceived epiphany!

This book was my April choice for the #ReadChristie2022 challenge, and I read the paperback/listened to the audio book narrated by Emilia Fox, swapping between the two. The audio book is very entertaining and Fox has exactly the fight kind of voice for Christie, although she did struggle a little with the Welsh accent at times, but it is definitely worth a listen.

I think this might be my favourite Christie stand-alone so far!

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? is available to buy now in multiple formats.

About the author:

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.