Evanly Choirs: A Constable Evans Mystery

by Rhys Bowen

Overview

When Constable Evan Evans is persuaded to join the local male choir for the upcoming eisteddfod (cultural festival), he doesn't think the addition of his mediocre voice will do them much good. In spite of all the effort that choirmaster Mostyn Phillips puts in to the choir, it is not exactly first class. Hope arrives in the form of world renowned tenor Ifor Llewelyn, come home to Llanfair to rest, on doctor's orders.

Llewelyn immediately sets about renewing old friendships, and Mostyn even persuades him to sing with the choir. But Ifor isn't in Llanfair long before the residents decide that his presence is a mixed blessing. Noisy fights between Ifor and his wife, a threatening stranger, and Ifor's own warped sense of humor make life in Llanfair increasingly tense. When he announces that he is planning to write his memoirs, telling all about his numerous relationships with famous and infamous women, he jokes that some people won't be happy. But is someone unhappy enough to commit murder to stop him? While tracking down a dangerous killer, Constable Evans also manages to navigate the treacherous waters of neighborhood rivalries, lusty barmaids, and local gossip.

With her third book in this acclaimed series, Rhys Bowen offers another page-turning tale of small-town mayhem and murder.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466840171
Publisher:	St. Martin''s Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/15/1999
Series:	Constable Evans Series , #3
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	31,264
File size:	514 KB

About the Author

Rhys Bowen’s novels have received a remarkable number of awards, including the Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity Awards as well as the Bruce Alexander Historical Award and the Herodotus Award. She is also the author of the Royal Spyness series and the Edgar Award–finalist Constable Evan Evans mysteries. Born in England, she now lives in San Rafael, California, with her husband.

Editorial Reviews

In the tiny Welsh village of Llanfair, the Reverend Edward Powell-Jones and his wife have decided to rent their home for the summer, for a huge fee, to famed opera star Ifor Llewellyn and his wife Margaret. The great man's doctor has advised rest. Mrs. Powell-Jones will move in with her mother to help her recover from hip surgery, and the Reverend will room and board with Mrs. Williams, landlady also to Constable Evan Evans. (Evan Help Us, 1998, etc.). Ifor's first trip to the Red Dragon reacquaints him with onetime fellow student Mostyn Philips, head of the local choir and soon to compete in the annual eisteddfod, a music festival in nearby Harlech. Mostyn gets up his nerve to ask Ifor to sing with the choir—a request that Ifor graciously agrees to. Meanwhile, his behavior in Llanfair is frowned on by Gladys, the Powell-Jones maid: there are screaming fights with his wife, too-frequent trips to the Red Dragon, and too many flirtations in Llanfair and elsewhere. None of this is preparation, though, for the day Margaret finds Ifor's dead body on the living room floor, glass in hand. Evans, working with Sergeant Watkins at headquarters in Caernarfon, turns up an overload of suspects: Margaret, thinking of divorce (and of her boyfriend), for one, and Ifor's son Justin and daughter Jasmine, among others. Then there's the matter of the housemaid Gladys, who's killed in a hit-and-run accident. Evans has his own scenario and, no matter how outlandish, it works. The author's cozily intimate style, unusual setting, and modest, down-home hero, back for a third outing, make for satisfying entertainment.

Kirkus Reviews