Why didn't they ask Evans?

 


Author: Agatha Christie

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Original publication date: September 1934

Book description: Was it a misstep that sent a handsome stranger plummeting to his death from a cliff? Or something more sinister? Fun-loving adventurers Bobby Jones and Frances Derwent's suspicions are certainly roused-especially since the man's dying words were so peculiar: Why didn't they ask Evans? Bobby and Frances would love to know. Unfortunately, asking the wrong people has sent the amateur sleuths running for their lives on a wild and deadly pursuit to discover who Evans is, what it was he wasn't asked, and why the mysterious inquiry has put their own lives in mortal danger

Thoughts:

It starts, as usual, it starts with a few people find a man who fell down a cliff. He is barely alive and they scramble to try to find help. It is too late before the help is sought he dies a few minutes later. The last few words:

"Why didn't they ask Evans?"

Who is Evans? They do not know who the man is but deliver the body to the police. There are a few inquests trying to find out what happened but there is nothing much that can be found. After the whole thing is closed and "complete". It is filed as an unfortunate accident. 

But the young man who found the body suddenly remembers a small detail. He never mentioned to the police or the family. The last few words the man mentioned. So with guilty conscience of not letting the family know when he met them, he mails them and lets them know that once cryptic line. 

Right after that, a few things change. He is an ex-military man, looking for direction for his life. He gets a huge deal, a mystery letter offering him a job in a faraway country. He has just made the decision to help out another friend of his who has just come across a business. After the incident of a once in a lifetime work offer, he gets poisoned. Surprising the doctors and people around, he survives.

The question is why would anyone want to kill him?

The young woman so out of his league he has been friends with his whole life comes back to check in on him. They start making a few theories about the reason to want to kill a nobody like him. 

The young woman and this good young man decided to investigate. She comes up with a very risky idea and starts to poke her nose into a situation that could be nothing. They get in something a bit over their heads. They have no idea what they are looking for. The Evans person is the big incognito and as they go finding new people and typing new details, making conjectures about what is going on... Well, many small details give impressions but as they have no reference point, well they make the best deductions they can with the information they found. 

I am not able to go into any more details without completely spoiling the story. But it's a nice mystery, you are taken around along with the main characters, they are lost on what they are doing. Not sure what is what, who to suspect but the ride is interesting. Once more a very fulfilling experience. This is again a classic story, you get a nice plot twist and we get the full explanation. This contains the villain monologue explaining the whole evil plan. It is a very good story.

I highly recommend Agatha Christie is very easy to see why she is such a great success. Even after reading a few of her books, I am still enjoying them. She still feels interesting. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bird Box

Image
Author: Josh Malerman Genre: Mystery/Thriller, Horror Original publication date: March 2014 Book description:  Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from. Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat—blindfolded—with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children's trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster? Thoughts: So this is a reread. The first time I read it was last year mainly because of booktube recommendations and the movie was released in N
Read more

Mid Month Wrap up (Hous Pocus + #AYearAThon)

For the beginning of the month, I participated in two Readathons. So I will do a wrap up of those two first ones that ended on the 13th. The first one was HOCUS POCUS READATHON. The goal was to cast a Spell to become immortal. Goal accomplished! It consisted of 7 challenges out of them, 6 were reading related. Read a total of 6 books. In those the total pages read were 2,263 In average it represented 377.67 pages per book  Not bad for the first two weeks of the month but yeah most of the book were on the shorter side. The second readathon accomplished was #AYearAThon in which we had to read a thriller. In a very good coincidence, these two overlapped allowing me to use a book from the previous challenges to cover this one as well. For this readathon only one book was finished, Misery and this one contained 370 pages.
Read more

The Diabolic

Image
Author: S.J. Kincaid  Series: The Diabolic #1 Genre: Sci-fi Original Publication Date: November 2016 Book Description (from GoodReads):  Nemesis is a Diabolic. Created to protect a galactic Senator's daughter, Sidonia. There's no one Nemesis wouldn't kill to keep her safe. But when the power-mad Emperor summons Sidonia to the galactic court as a hostage, there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia. She must become her. Now one of the galaxy's most dangerous weapons is masquerading in a world of corruption and Nemesis has to hide her true abilities or risk everything. As the Empire begins to fracture and rebellion looms closer, Nemesis learns that there is something stronger than her deadly force: the one thing she's been told she doesn't have - humanity. And, amidst all the danger, action and intrigue, her humanity might be the only thing that can save her, Sidonia and the entire Empire. Thoughts: This is a very interesting story the religion
Read more

Frankisstein: A love story

Image
Author: Jeanette Winterson  Genre: Sci-Fi, LGBT, Original publication date: May 2019 Book Description (from Goodreads):  In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love – against their better judgement – with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI. Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with Mum again, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere. Across the Atlantic, in Phoenix, Arizona, a cryogenics facility houses dozens of bodies of men and women who are medically and legally dead… but waiting to return to life. But the scene is set in 1816, when nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley writes a story about creating a non-biological life-form. ‘Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.' What will happen when homo sapiens is no longer the smartest being on the planet? Jeanette Winterson shows us how much closer we are to that future than we realize. Funny and f
Read more