Evanly Choirs (Constable Evans Mysteries (Hardcover)) [Library Binding]

Rhys Bowen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2005 | Series: Constable Evans Mysteries (Hardcover)

After a fire at Llanfair's new French restaurant makes murder the dish du jour, Constable Evans is on the case.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Welsh Constable Evan Evans is conscripted to sing tenor in the town of Llanfair's male choir in the third book (after Evan Help Us) of Bowen's charming series. Soon after his first rehearsal, Evan and the other singers learn that world-famous operatic tenor Ifor Llewellyn will be returning home to Llanfair, renting out a clegyman's house. Before the great man's arrival, Evan overhears two strangers, male and female, fighting on the reverend's lawn. Later, when the young woman's car slides into a nearby lake, Evan saves her from drowning and gives her a lecture on attempted suicide. Before Evan can sort out these puzzling events, Ifor moves in. He delights the villagers by offering, as a favor to the choirmaster, with whom he roomed at college, to sing with the choir at the annual country-wide competition. But Ifor's vicious temperament and his volatile arguments with his wife leave the village perplexed. After Ifor misses an important rehearsal, Evan accompanies the choirmaster to visit the tempermental starAand finds his body in the drawing room. A bump on Ifor's head suggests an accidental fall, but an autopsy confirms Evan's suspicion that the man was murdered. Teaming up with his old friend Sergeant Watkins, the constable takes a close look at Ifor's private life, uncovering a neglected wife, a cast-aside lover, an angry son and a disdainful daughter. Between his singing debut and his bumpy romance with the town schoolteacher, Evan sorts through a humorous series of false confessions to catch the real killer. Picareque town characters compensate for the novel's lack of suspense and contrived plotting. Ultimately, it's Bowen's keen sense of small-town politics and gossip that will keep her fans turning pages.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus 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 mans 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.). Ifors 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 choira 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 Ifors 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 Ifors son Justin and daughter Jasmine, among others. Then theres the matter of the housemaid Gladys, whos killed in a hit-and-run accident. Evans has his own scenario and, no matter how outlandish, it works. The authors cozily intimate style, unusual setting, and modest, down-home hero, back for a third outing, make for satisfying entertainment. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 256 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727862766
• ISBN-13: 978-0727862761
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,118,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rhys Bowen's books have been nominated for every major mystery award and she has won thirteen of them to date. She currently writes two historical mystery series, each very different in tone. The Molly Murphy mysteries feature an Irish immigrant woman in turn-of-the-century New York City. These books are multi-layered, complex stories with a strong sense of time and place and have won many awards including Agatha and Anthony. There are 10 book so far in this series plus the free Kindle story, The Amersham Rubies--a great way to introduce new readers to Molly's spunky personality.

Then there is Lady Georgie, Rhys's latest,and very popular, heroine. She's 34th in line to the throne of England, but she's flat broke and struggling to survive in the Great Depression. These books are lighter and funnier than Molly's adventures. They poke gentle fun at the British class system--about which Rhys knonws a lot, having married into an upper class family rather like Georgie's, with cousins with silly nicknames,family ghosts and stately homes. The fifth book, Naughty in Nice, is in stores now, and watch out for a big Christmas book in time for the 2012 holidays.
This year the series received the Readers Hoice Award for favorite mystery series.

Rhys was born in Bath, England and spent a lot of time growing up in Wales with her Welsh relatives. Those childhood experiences colored her first mystery series, about Constable Evans in the mountains of Snowdonia. 10 books including the Edgar nominee Evan's Gate. She has lived in Austria, Germany and Australia, but has called California her home for many years. She now escapes to a condo in Arizona during those cold California winters. When she's not writing she loves to travel, sing, hike and play the Celtic harp.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute delight, August 4, 1999

By 

Joan A. Curtin (Broadview Hts., OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evanly Choirs: A Constable Evans Mystery (Hardcover)

EVANLY CHOIRS, the third book in a charming series by Rhys Bowen, returns the reader to the village of LLanfair, Wales and the world of Police Constable Evan Evans. The mysteries in this delightful series are intriguing, but the true joy in reading them comes from the feeling that you know the people of Llanfair.

Bowen has created a village full of wonderfully idiosyncratic characters; from Evans the Meat (butcher) to Evans the Post (mailman), to the alluring barmaid, Betsy who has set her sights on the charming Evan Evans (Evans the cop).

The murders are a fun puzzle, but the visit to Llanfair is priceless.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As good as the others, August 13, 2000

By 

"sarasarah" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evanly Choirs (Constable Evans Mystery) (Paperback)

I'm following these mysteries with interest and enjoyment. The plots are good but it's the characters that are the real draw for the book. Ms. Bowen is adept at creating a warm atmosphere and likable, humorous characters. And Evan Evans is such a wholesome, good guy that it's a heartening reading about him after a bit of darker literature. These books are my guaranteed pleasant reads and I'm happily looking forward to the next.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hwyl iawn i Rhys Bowen, August 24, 2000

By 

D. P. Birkett (Suffern, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Evanly Choirs (Constable Evans Mystery) (Paperback)

Basically a British cosy with a Welsh setting and Welsh village stereotypes instead of English village stereotypes. Most of the humor derives from stereotyping and there's no great dialogue. Sort of Welsh Agatha Christie. Some of the detail is not authentic. The crown and the chair are different contests at the National Eisteddfod (the only one with a robed gorsedd of bards.) The crown is for free verse the chair is for cynghanedd. Ingenious plotting with no cheating. The clue is planted early on. No sex and minimal violence. As the Booklist blurb on the cover says "a perfect book to curl up with on a rainy day."