On the Classic Mysteries podcast last week, we talked about one of Agatha Christie's best stand-alone mysteries, called Ordeal by Innocence. It dates from 1958. Christie reportedly considered it one of the most satisfying to her. I agree. There's no question, however, that the book takes a very dark turn, with noir-ish elements, and it's more of a psychological drama than a thriller. But Christie was also a thriller writer, especially in some of her earlier books, and some of those really have a very light touch. Consider another of my favorite Christies, Why Didn't They Ask Evans? Good question, indeed! Here's what I had to say about it on the podcast nearly a decade ago, when I reviewed it. As usual, I've done a little editing.
- 0 -
A young golfer discovers a dying man who has fallen from a nearby cliff. The man regains consciousness briefly and speaks just five words before he dies – and those words plunge the young golfer into a bizarre search for the truth which will put his own life into danger. The five words are very simple: why didn’t they ask Evans? Which is also the title of the Agatha Christie novel which is our book this week on Classic Mysteries.
Agatha Christie created a number of excellent series characters – Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, to name only a few of them. But some of her best books were completely outside the various series. Often, they involve people who find themselves caught up in inexplicable and dangerous situations by chance, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That’s the case in Why Didn’t They Ask Evans, a 1934 novel that is one of my favorite Christies. Her central characters here are two "bright young people" – a golf-playing young man, Bobby Jones, and his friend, Lady Frances Derwent, or Frankie, as she is known.
In character type, I suppose, they are probably closer to Tuppence and Tommy Beresford than to the other Christie detectives – and the book, in fact, is a Tommy-and-Tuppence style thriller, although – being a Christie novel – it is full of the usual surprise twists and turns. Just when you think you know what has happened…your assumptions are given a violent shake. Be forewarned.
In any event, it is Bobby, out for a round of golf on a course in Wales, who finds the dying man, who appears to have fallen – or jumped – or been pushed – from a cliff. Bobby stays with the man while a friend goes for help. While the friend is gone, the fallen man recovers consciousness – speaks, quite clearly, the words “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” – and dies.
Bobby thinks very little of the man’s dying words, which don’t seem to make any sense, and, in fact, he forgets about them – until he is asked, several days later, whether the man said anything before dying. When he replies with that curious dying message, he suddenly finds himself the target of mysterious attacks on his life. He and Frankie set out to discover what is at stake here. Who is, or was, Evans? For that matter, who is, or was, the dying man? What of the unnamed woman whose picture he was carrying in his pocket – and how did that picture apparently get switched for a photo of somebody else? And why has somebody apparently decided that Bobby knows too much to remain alive – when the poor man has no idea what he is supposed to know?
There’s a marvelous bit of dialogue at one point, where Bobby and Frankie are comparing notes and agreeing that they do not fully understand what’s going on. Bobby compares it to discovering that they are characters who have wandered onstage in the middle of a play. He says:
"It’s as though we’d walked onto the stage in the middle of the second act, and we haven’t really got parts in the play at all, but we have to pretend, and what makes it so frightfully hard is that we haven’t the faintest idea what the first act was about."
Frankie nodded eagerly. “I’m not even sure it’s the second act – I think it’s more like the third. Bobby, I’m sure we’ve got to go back a long way….And we’ve got to be quick because I fancy the play is frightfully near the final curtain.”
And we are off into a vintage Christie thriller, with murders, abductions, mysterious doctors, damsels in distress and intrigues abounding. Unlike some thrillers, though, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans keeps the overall tone quite light. But beware: Christie does provide a few – a very few – clues about what is really going on, but she hides them quite skillfully, and it will be the particularly sharp-eyed reader who is able to figure everything out before the final chapters. Let me suggest, however, that you not lose sight of the title, for it is only when Bobby and Frankie have discovered the truth about Evans – and what, and why, Evans was not asked – that they will be on the road to the true solution of all the mysteries in the plot.
As I said earlier, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans is one of my favorite Christie thrillers. In his invaluable Pocket Essential Literature guide, Agatha Christie, author Mark Campbell describes it as being "as close to the perfect light-hearted murder mystery as Christie ever came." That sums it up perfectly. It’s still in print and should be easy to find.
- 0 -
I should add that Why Didn't They Ask Evans? was turned into a very good film version for television, which is still available for your home viewing enjoyment. It was made in 1981, and it has been a LONG time since I saw it, but I remember thinking that it was really an excellent adaptation.
You can listen to the complete audio review by clicking here.
Next: Envious Casca, by Georgette Heyer.
Comments