Why didn't they ask Evans?
Why Didn't They Ask Evans
by Agatha Christie
Genre: Murder Mystery
My thoughts
The story, like all good murder mysteries, starts with discovering a body. Only this body isn't quite dead. Not yet. Bobby, our main character, watches over the dying man (he's fallen from a cliff and is fairly certain to die soon) while his doctor friend goes for help. During this time, the man has a burst of consciousness and utters his last words...
"Why didn't they ask Evans?"
These last words and a photograph Bobby finds in the man's pocket will turn out to be important clues in solving who killed the stranger, because despite the inquest declaring the fall to be an accident, the man was most certainly murdered.
This story had a lot of twists and turns. There were poisonings, kidnappings, car accidents, locked room suicides and drastic changes to a will. I liked the action, I enjoyed the reveals and I think it was overall a fun read. The tone was very light-hearted with the two main characters having a lot of flirtation and amateur detective work. It reminded me a lot of The Secret of Chimneys.
But it did feel like an overly long story. I think possibly because the story lacked a Miss Marple or a Poirot, it didn't have that sense of a clear direction. The characters don't really feel in control of the situation or able to predict the murderer's next moves. We lose a bit of the tension I usually get with an Agatha Christie. Instead, it feels more like we're gossiping about all these strange occurrences and stumbling across information at a relatively slow pace.
Verdict
I enjoyed the mystery and the characters were very likeable, but it was a little too light-hearted and took longer to get to the solution that Miss Marple or Poirot would have allowed.
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