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EVAN BLESSED
by Rhys Bowen
St Martin's Minotaur, July 2005
256 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0312332068


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Rhys Bowen has been nominated for every major mystery prize and she's won a good many of them, so it's no surprise that EVAN BLESSED, the ninth installment of her Evan Evans series, shows the sure hand of a master at work.

Evan Evans is a good-hearted and hard-working Detective Constable who polices and lives in a charming Welsh village called, appropriately enough, Llanfair. As the story opens, Evan is busy planning for his forthcoming wedding to Bronwen Price, a local school teacher.

With only a few days to go before the wedding, he is accosted on the doorstep of his new cottage by a young man named Paul Upfield who tells him that his girlfriend Shannon Parkinson has gone missing on Mount Snowdon after a lover's quarrel. Of course Evan drops everything to hunt for the missing girl.

Before long, the mountain is covered with police deployed in search of the young woman. Though they search for hours, and cover every inch of the mountain, they are unable to find any indication of a lost hiker. However, they do find a bunker, completely outfitted with food, a bed and, ominously, a pair of handcuffs. Evan and his team becomes convinced that they're no longer looking for a lost hiker but for a kidnap victim who may be in serious danger of losing her life.

To complicate matters further, Evan receives a message in the form of a piece of music. The clever Bronwen is able to decipher the code, but even when the message is spelled out, the meaning is far from clear. From there, the plot races along with a lively intensity, twisting to a scary climax that tests Evan both personally and professionally.

The mystery in EVAN BLESSED is a good one, and the ending is especially strong, but the real pleasure in the Evan Evans series, for me, at least, is in the wonderfully rendered atmosphere of small-town Wales. The characters Rhys Bowen has created form a close-knit, eccentric community that provides a gently humorous counterpoint to the grim realities unveiled in the mystery.

If you're in the mood for a cozy with perhaps some darker shadows than most, you'll enjoy hanging out with Evan and Bronwen as they prove that not even a deranged killer bent on committing another murder can keep them apart.

Reviewed by Carroll Johnson, April 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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