Evans Above (Hardcover)

The Welsh setting (in a village by Mount Snowden) figures large in this book. Constable Evan Evans (how much more Welsh a name can you get?) is a Welshman (Welsh is his first language, English his second) who (even though he was on track to be an inspector) has taken a humble position as the village constable after his father's tragic death. It's a good thing, because two bodies appear, apparently the victims of climbing accidents -- but Evans doesn't think so. The powers that be have a very low opinion of village constables and dismiss him and his theories, but he keeps plugging away. In the meantime, there's this child-killer on the loose that everyone is looking for.

The mystery is full of the village types (including a Major who runs the Swiss chalet style inn and the two ministers' wives whose husbands pastor the two adjacent chapels in this village). Evans spends much of his time dodging single woman (or the grandmothers of single women) who regard him as a catch.

Evans is likeable and the plot of the mystery was flawless -- kept me guessing until the very end. I look forward to reading more in this series.

Poor Evans doesn't have it easier on his personal turf either. Two local women are on his track: one exuberant barmaid and a demure school teacher who are at each other's throats over him, a landlady who overfeeds him Welsh delicacies, and the local minister's wife, who expects him to be at her beck-and-call for everything from tomato theft to flowerbed trampling.

This is a complex mystery that starts off with two murders, but it develops into an engaging puzzle of disappearances, child crimes, robbery, etc.; where Constable Evans always tries to find "a connection". As the book progresses, this becomes his mantra, as the confusion increases and the so called connection seems most elusive, but it's always lurking in the background, until it eventually turns up.

I didn't find the denouement all that fair to the reader. As a matter of fact, it is impossible to discover whodunit on the book's evidence alone because a vital piece of information is missing until, all of a sudden, we're confronted with the murderer. Withholding information in a mystery is a serious crime (get it?). The evidence, the clues, must all be well hidden and sometimes even presented deceptively; but they must always be there, and the reader must be able to sense them. This is not so in "Evans Above". Luckily, however, this country cozy is entertaining enough, when at the same time reflects the fierce nationalism that makes this part of the UK stand as a land on its own. The local customs and the spirit of the people come through, giving the book its true value. As it says in the prologue, one doesn't think of Wales as a foreign country, but in fact it is. It is one of those places I'd like to visit some day, and, thanks to books like this one, I know I'll keep it in my heart.

The story line is intriguing enough that I finished reading it, but I found lots of repetitions in the plot as well as in the writing. The same women try over and over and over again with the same ploy to get the Constable's attention. The same complaint about his landlady who tries to feed him good food. The same annoyance at a minister's wife who insists on finding out who's trespassed her garden.

The story is set in Wales, and there are bits and pieces of the Welsh diction inter-dispersed in the dialogues. But the entire time I was reading, I found myself wanting to be convinced that the author indeed knew enough about life in a Welsh village to set a story in it. In the end, I am not convinced at all.