Customer Reviews

Evan's Gate

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When a young girl goes missing from Porthmadog, Constable Evan Evans is among the police called in to search for her. The girl's mother is quick to blame her husband, who might be planning to return to his native Russia. Couple that with the girl's recent heart transplant and Evan knows the pressure is on to find her before time runs out.

Meanwhile, Evan is restoring a cottage in Llanfair to move into after he and Bronwen get married. While digging a trench, he finds the skeleton of another girl. Evan quickly guesses it was a girl he knew who disappeared 25 years ago. Are the two cases connected?

This is another excellent entry in the series. The plot was well constructed to fool the reader. While I figured things out before Evan, it wasn't much before, and that was based on some lucky guesses. While there is plenty of time spent outside Llanfair, its home base in this book, and we get some very humorous scenes with the locals we've gotten to know over the last few books.

I'm disappointed to be up to date on this series. I've always enjoyed having a pile of these books to look forward to reading. I can't wait until the next book in this fun series coming out.

With his promotion, Evan Evans is now a Detective Constable and his future never looked brighter. In September, he is marrying the woman he loves and they are going to live in a fixer-upper cottage in the National Park adjacent to the North Wales town of Llanfair. Before he can work on the sewer system to get them ready for inspection, he is called in on a case of a missing five year old girl whose mother thinks was abducted by the child?s Russian immigrant father.

The case is urgent because the child has had a heart transplant and she needs the anti-rejection medication to survive. A search for the father draws a blank and Evan takes a break to work on the underground sewer lines near his house. When he digs a few feet, he finds the body of a young child who was probably interred two decades ago. This case is personal for Evan because he played with the child when they were youngsters and he?s determined to find out how she got in the hole. In the meantime, the mother of the missing girl has disappeared and Evan believes when he finds her, he will solve that crime.

Each novel in this series keeps getting better because the hero learns from his mistakes and knows how to be part of a team. The romance between him and his fianc?e adds a nice touch of spice to this special cozy as the police have to investigate the death of one child and the disappearance of another. Rhys Bowen attractively brings North Wales to life in this police procedural series.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoyed Evan's Gate very much. I got so wrapped up in the dual plotlines that I did not stop reading until I finished. There were enough red herrings that I was not able to figure it out as I did in the previous books of the series. It was especially sad when the mystery of Sarah was uncovered. This was especially well written and plotted. I cannot wait for the next one!

This is a well-written series which has, for me, become better over time as they become less light. There are red herrings, suspense and an ending which is sad and touching. Very well done.

This new novel in the series by Rhys Bowen provides an intriguing mystery, liberally sprinkled with the characters which longtime readers have come to know & love. This series is set in modern day North Wales & all the titles playfully refer to the main character, Evan Evans, a police officer who has now moved from being the village bobbie to the post of Detective Constable. Evan is involved in investigating two disappearances, both of young blonde girls, twenty-five years apart. The reader is pulled willingly along as the mysteries are unwound.

The Evan Evans series is a much admired set of "cozy" mysteries, and I've enjoyed each one of them, reading them in order--something I'd encourage any new reader to do. The wonderful characterizations, carried over from book to book, and the strong sense of place which pulls the reader into the small Welsh villge, combine with excellent plotting to make the books first class. But, I hate to confess, this eighth book of the series has what I think of as a major flaw in any mystery; some serious "pulling of punches." Earlier reviews by other readers have mentioned much of the plot, and I of course wish to spoil no one's fun, so I can't really explain my objection well. The problem is, what do we have the "right" to expect, as devoted readers and fans of mysteries? I felt a little cheated in this book and was surprised that Ms Bowen bent her own rules somewhat, perhaps moving the center of our interest from mystery to romance or something like it. By all means, read the book for its wonderful characters and the ongoing playing out of Evan's personal life, but be prepared if you're a hard-core mystery lover--you'll grumble a little when you're finished.

Evan's Gate
Rhys Bowen

I pick up one of Rhys Bowen's "Evan" mysteries whenever I'm in need of a fairly quick relaxing read. I know I can rely on this writer, and this series, to give me a thoroughly professional job of writing. Plot, characters, pacing, setting - all are first rate, but unless you are reviewing the book you don't even notice any of them, they're that good.
Evan, the Welsh policeman, bridges the two worlds, the ancient Celtic culture of Wales and the trendy life in the present day British Isles. He is most at home in the Welsh culture of yesteryear but his work and his life demand that he keep up with changing times. Many of us feel for him in this dilemma.
In this story the apparent abduction of a little girl resonates with Evan as the discovery of another child's body on his own land reminds him of another child who disappeared years ago in the area. As he searches for the present day missing child he wonders ever more deeply about the other child. Are there any links here? Could one of his childhood friends possibly be the murderer of one, or both little girls?
As you relax and enjoy the gentle tongue-in-cheek humor of Rhys Bowen you are led into much deeper waters than you expected. Very gently she presents both sides of child custody battles. Evan's quest to locate the missing child leads to his personal journey of self-discovery. The final resolution, Evan's realization of who might be responsible for the child's body found lying near his own new home, digs deeper than you might expect from an apparently light read.
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. On the one hand it was an easy read, the settings well drawn, the characters vivid and true to life, the writing fresh. On the other hand it left me thinking more deeply. The writer appealed to her readers on several levels and left at least this reader satisfied. Not many light mystery novels accomplish so much.

8th in the Constable Evan Evans series. Ashley Sholokhov has disappeared from the beach while on vacation with her mother. Many search parties are on the case looking for the missing 5 year old, but the biggest discrepancy, in Evan's mind, is the lack of footprints in the sand around where Ashley was playing. Elsewhere in the area there is a birthday party in the works, celebrating the 80th birthday of Tomos Thomas. Unfortunately the missing Ashley brings an old case to the forefront of Evan's attention - the disappearance of Sarah, Tomos's granddaughter and Evan's playmate, who went missing 20 years ago. Now all the suspects have returned to the area and another child is missing. Evan works the case, although adjusting to his position in the Plainclothes Division is not as easy as it would seem. The story lines have the reader wondering how the puzzle will end.

This series never fails to please. It covers the quirkiness and foibles of a Welsh village with the help of a good plot line and the very likeable Evan Evans.
The author has the talent to make you care about the characters and what happens to them.

This is perhaps the 3rd or so book in this series that I've read, and I think it is my favorite so far. The plotting is more complicated, and there are really two mysteries under investigation: the first involves a 5 year old child who is reported as abducted from a beach (by her noncustodial Russian father or is it more sinister than that?) and the skeleton of a child of a similar age found buried in front of a shepherd's cottage that Evan has bought. Evan feels that the abduction of the child may be related to the older death of the child buried by his cottage, but his superior disagrees. However, he is allowed to spend some of his time looking into the older case while the search goes on for the missing child.

This book moved right along. There was a red herring on just about every page, although I had some general ideas about how both mysteries would turn out (which proved to be correct). I still was left with some concerns about whether the solution worked from the viewpoint of the timeline, but that's a technical point that doesn't detract from the mystery. If you like this series already, I'm sure you'll find this book a particularly good addition. If you haven't read any yet, if you like the Celtic Cozy mystery (like M.C. Beaton's Hamesh MacBeth), you're in for a Welsh treat.