This is a reposting of a review that I wrote a couple of years ago and didn’t feel I did justice to. Yes, I finished the book.

It’s killing me, I tell you. Killing me! In my desperate need to read Rhys Bowen Constable Evan Evans mysteries, preferably from the beginning I resorted to hijacking one off the shelf at work and reading it on my lunches.

Well, I’m 40 pages from the end, I have no idea whodunnit and it’s my day off. Can you believe it? I’m actually wishing I was at work. Am I nuts?

If you think that you haven’t read Rhys Bowen yet. Evans Above is the first book in the series. Evan has been assigned to the mountain village of Llanfair for traumatic, but undisclosed reasons. He likes it there because it’s quiet and he lived there as a boy. He’s interested in the school teacher, Bronwen, and she in him but the bar maid Betsy is interested in him and his landlady thinks he should settle down with her granddaughter. And then 2 hikers are found apparently having fallen off the mountain. Evan doubts this because according to him "even an Englishman couldn’t have fallen off that cliff" because of the winds. His superior DI Watkins disagrees and wants the deaths ruled an accident so he can get back to another case. Evan decides to pursue an investigation on the sly while wooing Bronwen, dodging Betsey and placating his landlady.

I’m not going to tell you everything. It would ruin the mystery, wouldn’t it?

The writing is excellent. Bowen won an Edgar for Murphy’s Law and I don’t understand why she hasn’t won for these books. This is a cozy mystery so it isn’t breakneck, terrifying ride, but it moves along at a good clip without bogging down. The wacky villagers help a lot. Imagine a murder mystery set in Northern Exposure (if Northern Exposure took place in Wales.)

The setting is breathtaking and completely accurate to my memory of being in Wales. Reading these books makes me homesick for the place. (And I grew up in Ohio.) The green, the scent, the mountains, the soft air (this is northern Wales, not the industrial south.) Even the food. Evan’s landlady is a great cook. She’s putting my lunches to shame. The characters (and they are characters) breathe. And like I said, I’m 40 pages from the end and I haven’t solved it yet. Most mysteries I have solved half way through and I’m just watching to see what’ll happen. At worst I have it sorted out about the same time the sleuth does. These? Man, I don't even know what the deal is with Evan's Dad. I find out when the bad guy discovers he’s caught. I even resorted to the under handed trick of going through the characters I know aren’t in the later books trying to decide if one of them could have been the killer (ok, not really fair, but it didn’t work anyway.) I’m betting I have about 30 more pages before I find out who did it and then I’ll be kicking myself for not figuring it out sooner.

And then I’ll be looking for the next one.

These things are like candy and I have a terrible sweet tooth. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I run out. There’s only about 5 plus 3 Molly Murphy books. Look at me, it’s like an addiction. But not a bad one.

PS – Woohoo. We do find out about Evan’s dad. And the killer is both stunningly obvious and absolutely shocking. Now if the customers would just leave me alone so I could read at the cash register.

Evans Above (You are here)
Evanly Choirs http://www.epinions.com/content_156486700676
Evan Help Us http://www.epinions.com/content_156487224964
Evan and Elle
Evan Can Wait http://www.epinions.com/content_156487749252
Evans to Betsy
Evan Only Knows http://www.epinions.com/content_156488601220



Recommended: Yes