Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

I wish this book had a more interesting cover. In any case, the mystery was an interesting premise, and easily the best thing about the book.

It starts off with Bobby Jones having a game of golf with his friend (I had to wiki an inside joke here - he was most probably named after a famous American golfer in the 20's and 30's) and hits a ball off the edge onto a sharp drop. He discovers an unconscious man who seems to have fallen off earlier. His friend, also conveniently a doctor, checks the man and pronounces that there's no hope for him, and then rushes off to get help. Bobby is left to stand guard. The dying man recovers his consciousness for only a glimmer of a moment, just enough time to pronounce (dramatically, I imagine) the enigmatic titular phrase: “Why didn't they ask Evans?” and then dies.

Bobby then goes off with his childhood friend Lady Frances Derwent, better known as Frankie, to uncover the mystery.

Characters and some plot elements were a little cliched (feisty rich girl, feisty poor boy, sinister people, un-sinister people whose motives you still question, misunderstandings, dangerous situations, eventual romance). Still, it kept me reading through all the way to the end. The cast of characters isn't large, so if you've been reading too much Agatha Christie like me, you've probably suspected any and all the characters at some point or other, so while the ending and solution wasn't a huge surprise, I have to give props to Christie's expert manipulation of the readers' suspicions to bluff and double bluff and triple bluff us.

I also love how Christie uses such a seemingly trivial phrase like: “Why didn't they ask Evans?” to keep the whole plot together. It's really one of her signature styles. When the whole adventure begins, more and more suspects are introduced (but not a single one named Evans) and a whole mystery is unravelling but this phrase is never fully explained - right till the end of the book.

“There's one thing you must tell me,” said Frankie. “I've been driven nearly mad with curiosity. Who is Evans?”“Oh!” said Bassington-ffrench. “So you don't know that?”He laughed–and laughed again.

This exchange happens on page 241 of 279, so you can imagine how late we find out the identity of this mysterious Evans. But when we do, it ties in everything so nicely and everything makes perfect sense.

P.S. I also love the name Bassington-ffrench. Double lowercase f's are so quirky.