Reading the Detectives discussion

Welcome to the first book in our 'Assorted Christies Challenge,' Why Didn't They Ask Evans? Why Didn't They Ask Evans? This was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club in September 1934 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1935 under the title of The Boomerang Clue.

While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. With his final breath the man opens his eyes and says, ‘Why didn’t they ask Evans?’

Haunted by these words, Bobby and his vivacious companion, Frankie, set out to solve a mystery that will bring them into mortal danger.

Please feel free to post spoilers in this thread.

I wish that Christie had found a way to make it plausible that Bobby, rather than the doctor, stayed with the dying man. Bobby had no medical knowledge, and Christie glossed over this by saying that the man would be in no pain, and there was nothing that could be done. This explanation makes it unlikely that a medical person was needed to explain the situation to anyone he sought to assist. So, there are two medical counts against Bobby staying with the body. Then we go to the physical nature of the two men. How can it be explained that an older man rather than Bobby ran for help? Bobby is physically fit enough to have run to the train in chapter two, and hurl himself into a carriage. There needs to be a sentence to explain - could the doctor's authority be a factor? If so, that needs to be crafted into the decision.

I've finished this one now and enjoyed it a lot - it reminded me of the Tommy and Tuppence stories.

There are a few unlikely plot twists, I will agree - I hadn't noticed that one about the doctor going for help, Robin.

Another is the bizarre disguise in the cottage towards the end, where I'm sure that in real life Bobby and Frankie would spot it immediately, as they have already seen both the people concerned!

Unlikely disguises are something that regularly crops up in Christie, though, and with a fun mystery-adventure like this I'm happy to go with the flow.

As Robin pointed out, there were more than a few unbelievable instants in this. Badger falling through the skylight made me smile, and what's more he was unhurt.

I was reminded of the early Tommy and Tuppence, too - and while usually I'd be riled by aristocratic flaunting of privilege and wealth, Frankie is so much fun that I forgave her.

I enjoyed being wrong-footed over Moira - the fragile beauty is such a cliche... so it was great that she turns out to be a criminal mastermind!

RC, I was suspicious of Moira from quite early on because Bobby fancies her, and I felt that Frankie must be his true love!

This was a fun one. I agree a whole lot of improbabilities, but if I totally ignored them, the story was enjoyable. Moira surprised me too.

Judy wrote: "RC, I was suspicious of Moira from quite early on because Bobby fancies her, and I felt that Frankie must be his true love!"

Me, too - from the first, Bobby was so smitten and blinded by the fragile beauty routine, I thought if she’s one of the bad guys, he’s falling for it hard!

Susan in NC wrote: "Judy wrote: "RC, I was suspicious of Moira from quite early on because Bobby fancies her, and I felt that Frankie must be his true love!"

Me, too - from the first, Bobby was so smitten and blinded..."

Ooh, well done, you two! I was so convinced that Roger Bassington-French was the culprit that a secret alliance with Moira never occurred to me. The 'accidents' of his nephew and the shooting of his brother with the convenient airplane overhead were giveaways, I felt. I love it when AC has further tricks to reveal :)

On Moira, I also think once you know her husband is innocent, her whole act of being terrified of him becomes extremely suspicious - it's surprising Bobby and Frankie don't suspect her at that point!

I didn't work it out properly for either her or R B-F though - I largely just suspected them because I thought they couldn't be allowed to romance our heroes. ;)

Judy wrote: "On Moira, I also think once you know her husband is innocent, her whole act of being terrified of him becomes extremely suspicious - it's surprising Bobby and Frankie don't suspect her at that poin..."

Exactly! Bobby seemed kind of an upright, deeply decent chap, like a Hastings type, and he was always so gullible to attractive women, and I figured Bobby would end up with Frankie, so nothing could come of any feelings for Moira (plus she was married). But the the big thing for me was finding out the doctor was innocent- creepy, maybe, but innocent- so all of her fears made no sense.

Finished the audiobook, and found the story quite confusing with too many people, at least when listening. I also didn´t like the voice Emilia Fox had for Frankie, so high-pitched and childish. Perhaps I´ll try the print once my library will open again.

I loved the part where Moira tries to shoot Frankie and Christie wryly comments, for the first time in the history of the cafe one of the waitresses hurried :)

It is these wry (as you so aptly describe them) comments that I miss in the later novels. Christie is so good at combining humour with murder mystery and detection. The way in which the nurse responds to Lady Frances Derwent's hospital visit to the hospital is also amusing.

Yes, those titles were really worth something in the 1930's, weren't they?

I finished this today. I don’t remember having read it before. At first I thought it was excellent & quite funny in places, but lost interest a bit as more characters were introduced & the plot seemed more implausible.

Susan wrote: "Yes, those titles were really worth something in the 1930's, weren't they?"

Very helpful in getting the help, lower classes to hop to it!

Trisha wrote: "I finished this today. I don’t remember having read it before. At first I thought it was excellent & quite funny in places, but lost interest a bit as more characters were introduced & the plot see..."

Same here, I enjoyed it, but kept longing for Miss Marple or Poirot to appear with some sense about human nature- Bobby and Frankie seemed so gullible!

Yes, they were so amateurish compared to those we had been reading

I just finished it and enjoyed it very much! I didn’t mind the coincidences and implausible bits at all, they seemed all of a piece with the amateurishness of the detectives. I think Frankie will prove splendidly resourceful in Kenya.

This was the first Christie mystery I have ever read, amazingly enough, and my thanks to this group for introducing me to it!

Oh wow, Abigail, glad you enjoyed your first Christie. You may well like next month's, The Secret Adversary, too, if you are tempted to try it, as I think that has quite a similar feel to it.

Great!

Oh, so good that you enjoyed your first Christie, Abigail :)

Has anyone seen an adaptation of Why Didn't They Ask Evans? I've just had a look and I see there was a TV movie in 1980 with a great cast including Francesca Annis as Frankie, James Warwick as Bobby, Connie Booth from Fawlty Towers as Sylvia, and John Gielgud as Bobby's father! This is on YouTube at the moment, though I'm never sure what the picture quality will be like on there.

There was also a Miss Marple episode in the series starring Julia McKenzie in 2009, which again had a fabulous cast though I'm slightly puzzled as to how Miss Marple can be brought into the story! That one is currently free on ITV Hub, but only for the next 9 days, so I may watch that version first.

I saw the youtube version on my kindle with earbuds. I thought sound was fine. Let us know how miss marple comes into it

Thanks Chris, good to know that the YouTube version is OK. I'll let you know how ITV managed to work in Miss Marple!

I guess they thought it would have more appeal. A shame really - hopefully, this challenge will make us more aware of Christie's stand alone mysteries. Oddly, this came up as a Pointless category a couple of weeks ago - Christie's with no Poirot or Marple - and I impressed my husband no end by naming several pointless answers, due to our current challenge!

I've now watched the "Agatha Christie's Marple" episode and it is really "inspired by" Why Didn't They Ask Evans rather than being an adaptation - there are a lot of extra characters and all kinds of extra plot twists, so it bears almost no relation to the book.

I also found some of it very melodramatic, as did my husband, who didn't know the original story. Great cast but overall a bit of a disappointment, to me anyway - a bit like one or two of the recent ITV Christie adaptations which completely changed the story!

I forgot to say, Miss Marple comes into it as an old friend of Bobby's mother who is staying with her, and steps in to help Bobby and Frankie after they start investigating.

Thanks for telling us about Miss Marple.

As far as books and movies being different---reminds me of warning my students against using a movie as a shortcut for a book report.😁

Interesting, as Bobby's mother never appears in the book.

Absolutely - you can never use movies as a shortcut to a book, Chris. I am currently watching the BBC version of Tess of the D'Urbervilles with my son (reading it too, obviously) and we have already noticed a few differences.

Mind you, I once went on a training session with teachers and one told me he always picked A Christmas Carol as his exam book, so they could at least watch The Muppets version!

The more I think about it, the more I think that Marple episode really isn't very good - it has all kinds of strange back stories and is quite hard to follow. I will hope to see the non-Marple adaptation soon! I do agree about movies always being different from the book.

Susan wrote: "Interesting, as Bobby's mother never appears in the book...."

I suppose it might have seemed like a romance for Miss Marple if she had stayed with his father as an old friend! :)

Goodness, what a thought! Miss Marple was always thinking of what her nephew would like to eat, and of his comfort, but I think she was far too set in her ways for romance.

Just read The Moving Finger and then saw the movie. Miss Marple is just at the very end of the book, summarizing the case---but the movie has her involved right from the beginning.

I could see her marrying a scholarly vicar for companionship, but he'd have to be the type to be very busy and out of her hair while she is thinking about her crimes and snooping.

He could wind her wool, I suppose ;)

I agree that this is a fun one with something of Tommy & Tuppence about it. It’s also like the creations of a certain other author who I won’t name for the sake of spoilers, but a reliable short cut to the solution starts with seeing which two will end up as a couple by the end. In this case it was obvious Bobby & Frankie would end up together, so there had to be something wrong with Moira and Roger. Christie isn’t always like this and can use the assumption that a particular couple will end up together as a smokescreen, but not in this case.

Abigail - I’m really jealous of anyone who has all those Christie’s to read for the first time!

I also thought this was a fun romp with lots of unlikely occurrences but the young heroes carried it off well, always brave and resourceful. The villains were appropriately dastardly hiding behind their noble, helpful, sweet personas.

I waited until I had both an audio and print version. That worked well as I easily lost the thread when listening.

Frankie and Bobby will do well in Kenya and I hope Badger can keep 'his' business together. Have we read a book with a character named Badger recently? That name sound so familiar when I heard it.

Susan wrote: "He could wind her wool, I suppose ;)"

Perfect- as a knitter, I agree.

While Frankie and Bobby were irritating in their gullibility, it was a delight to read a Christie novel which was full of pep. Having had a surfeit of the later Christies! I, at least, find Christie's dialogues from this era quite undated (for lack of a better word).

I have just started the Tommy and Tuppence - have never read them before - and agree there is a similarity between Frankie and Bobby. Good fun, I agree.

This was a great light-hearted caper to read. I enjoyed Badger, although found him falling through the skylight quite improbable.

The business plan for second hand car dealership by Badger and Bobby sounded very dodgy. Their plans reminded me of the garage in the Ealing comedy "School for Scoundrels" (if anyone has seen that). Trading standards for used vehicles were obviously very different in the past!

Agree about Badger and his garage project!

Tracey, your comments make me want to watch School for Scoundrels - I've just realised that I've seen very few of the Ealing comedies despite being a fan of classic films. I definitely wouldn't want to be a customer of Badger and Bobby!

Judy wrote: "Tracey, your comments make me want to watch School for Scoundrels - I've just realised that I've seen very few of the Ealing comedies despite being a fan of classic films. I definitely wouldn't wan..."

It was on BBC iPlayer recently, but I've just checked and it's disappeared. They do have some classic film gems tucked away though!

A totally implausible romp in which Christie showed her somewhat dry sense of humour which I enjoyed. While reading it felt like a prelude to Tommy and Tuppence and I couldn't help wondering if it was this foray into this more lighthearted writing that gave Christie the idea for the T&T series.
Altogether a fun Famous Five/Secret Seven/Nancy Drew mystery for grown ups.

I did a reread (hadn't remembered who did it which was great). I agree with Michaela about Emilia Fox's narration. I actually can't stand the way she does men.

As for the story, I felt the first few chapters really dragged, but then it picked up. I gave it a 3 star.

While I did assume that Bobby & Frankie would end up together, that did not translate into me figuring out that meant our villains were Roger & Moira. Dr. Nicholson did himself no favors in terms of looking suspicious.
This book has early shades of T & T, but I must say I actually prefer this duo, and would have enjoyed more books starring them rather than the ones she chose to turn into series long characters. Certainly having a titled lady as one of the detectives provided more opportunities to get away with things the hoi polloi could not, not to mention access to multiple homes, cars, changes of clothes, etc.