Evan Blessed (Constable Evans Series #9)

by Rhys Bowen

Overview

Constable Evan Evans scours a Welsh mountainside to find a missing woman—and then copes with the subsequent disappearance of his beloved Bronwen—in the newest novel in this “most enjoyable” series (Dorothy Cannell)…

Mt. Snowdon, Yr Wyddfa to the locals, is crawling with tourists in the summer months. So Constable Evans isn’t unduly alarmed when a young female hiker goes missing for a few hours. She might have taken a wrong turn or even stormed off to hide after a tiff with her boyfriend.

The routine search turns more ominous, though, when the village police find an underground bunker—complete with handcuffs and chains. Now, as he copes with wedding plans and a visit from his disapproving mother, Evans has a serious investigation on his plate, searching for a link between the still-missing girl and the eerie, empty chamber.

And when his own fiancée disappears, the case goes from ominous to terrifying…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425211168
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/05/2006
Series:	Constable Evans Series , #9
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	92,969
Product dimensions:	4.30(w) x 6.70(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Rhys Bowen has been nominated for every major award in mystery writing, including the Edgar®, and has won seven, including both Agatha and Anthony awards. She is also the author of the Molly Murphy Mysteries set in turn-of-the-century New York, and the Constable Evans Mysteries set in Wales. She was born in England and lives in Northern California.

Table of Contents

Editorial Reviews

In Edgar-finalist Bowen's smooth, fast-paced ninth Constable Evans mystery (after 2004's Evan's Gate), the case of a girl who's disappeared while hiking on Mt. Snowdon interrupts Evan Evans and Bronwen Price's wedding preparations. A search fails to turn up the girl, but the police do find a bunker dug into the mountain, complete with survival supplies and chains and handcuffs. As the investigation continues, Evan receives an odd note, a threat in the form of music. Convinced he's dealing with a clever, twisted mind after other missives follow, Evan never suspects that Bronwen could be a target. When his fianc e goes missing, Evan is even more desperate to solve the riddle of the musical threats. Bowen keeps the suspense slowly building to a satisfying and tidy conclusion. Agent, Meg Ruley. (Aug. 8) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Detective Constable Evan Evans has no time for prenuptial jitters. He's just finished hauling his fiancee Bronwen's possessions up to their mountain cottage when a young hiker arrives claiming to have misplaced his girlfriend on the slopes of Snowden. After Paul Upfield had a tiff with his girlfriend, they separated on the mountain, and now she's missing. Because she's only 17, the police start an early search. The disappearance takes on sinister implications when the search dogs discover an underground bunker complete with handcuffs hanging from a beam. As the search continues, Evan receives several mysterious missives in the form of sheet music whose notes yield cryptic clues. The police have hundreds of people to interview because the district is flooded with summer tourists. Although there are some local possibilities that partially fit the profile, none of them seems guilty. Meanwhile, Evan is coping with his mother, who remains cool to Bronwen, and her parents, who've scrapped the happy couple's simple plans in favor of a truly grand wedding. When Bronwen vanishes, more clues from the music-loving kidnapper reveal that her disappearance is not a random event. Evan and his colleagues pull out all the stops trying to find the missing girls before it's too late. Bowen builds tension with every page simply by making Evan and Bronwen (Evans to Betsy, 2001, etc.) so likable and resourceful that you pull for them all the way.

Kirkus Reviews