Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

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. The man opens his eyes and with his last breath says, "Why didn't they ask Evans?"

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

This title was previously published as The Boomerang Clue.

©1934 Agatha Christie Limited (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Emilia Fox ruins another Agatha Christie

What made the experience of listening to Why Didn't They Ask Evans? the most enjoyable?

I enjoyed the mystery and the characters, as I nearly always do with Agatha Christie.

Would you be willing to try another one of Emilia Fox’s performances?

Emilia Fox is absolutely the worst. I have listened to a lot of her performances, as she does most of the Miss Marples and a Poirot, and several of the stand-alone mysteries. Her narration is okay, but her voices make me want to break things. Why she thinks she needs to talk in a squeaky, completely affected voice for her female characters I will never understand. Her male voices aren't great either, which isn't entirely her fault, but she always manages to make male characters who are just normal people sound like utter weirdos. I wish she would give more thought to what people actually sound like and not try to make up silly voices for so many characters.

the story was fun , narrator needs better voices

The men's voices all sounded like a woman trying to sound like a man. Kind of distracting at times, but overall fairly well done.A very very fun story.
VM20160713

Fun young detectives make a great team!

This is a really different Agatha Christie as it is not Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Superintendant Battle or Parker Pyne! It is a stand-alone novel with a good puzzle and a bit of romance.

The vicar is wondering when his son Bobby, who is fresh out of the Navy, is going to decide on a new career and DO something and get out of the house.

Bobby is worried about his dad's health and wondering how long he can stand living at home to look after his father. He plays golf but not well, and he is smart but not brilliant, and he is steady, persevering and trustworthy.

Lady Frankie, daughter of the local peer, is bright and vivacious with a flashing intelligence. She and Bobby have been friends since childhood, and when Bobby is pulled into a mystery she teams up with him to solve the puzzle of a dying man's words: "Why didn't they ask Evans?"

The plot line is full of twists and turns and you will be surprised at where you end up!

This is a fun story with a good puzzle, but the main reason I return for a periodic listen is the characters. I really like them, I enjoy the development of their relationship and the ending is satisfying and fun!

Great story but painful to listen to Emilia

I love this story, many characters and non obvious plot. However this audio book version is very painful to listen to. Emilia Fox is a terrible narrator and tried too hard to do different accents and voices such that they come off strange and sometimes shrill. Sometimes her voice was also hoarse. I wish Hugh Fraser had narrated this instead.

Interesting story, lackluster performance.

The story is an enjoyable read with appropriate and interesting twists. The performance is not as well done as it might be. The various character voices seems strained and somewhat inconsistent. Frankie's voice is sometime high, almost squeaky and at others, less so and more natural. The male voices, while differentiated, sound much like a woman trying to sound male, which is just what is happening. They sound as if a woman was intentionally attempting to lower her voice - which is what is happening. One minor textual inconsistency occurs when Bobby bus a motorcycle and rides through town in cap and Google's - but then hides the "bicycle" behind some bushes. I don't know if that is in the book, or a mistake by the narrator.

Even so, the story is enjoyable and moves relatively quickly, so I'd recommend it. As the only or one of only a handful of Frankie and Bobby adventures, it is a must read for Christie fans.

Great suspense & good reading

One of those Agatha Christie's that you can't stop listening to! Another reader stated the narrator Emilia Fox was terrible, but I thought she was perfectly fine. I think some of her male voices were a little harder to buy, but I experience that with male narrators trying to pull off female voices too. I wonder if centuries of male actors performing as women & not the other way around so much has biased listeners' ears....

Thought performance great!

I almost missed my new favorite Agatha Christie book because of reviews hating the reader ... thot I’d let anyone interested know she did a great job and I enjoyed the book thoroughly.

Narrator is completely fine!

I was very close to not getting this book because of all the hate on the narrator. It’s all very misplaced. The story is great, narration is not at all distracting or whatever else, totally worth it.

Typical Agatha Christie

Any additional comments?

This is just a fun little story. It's typical Agatha Christie, so if you've read her books before, you are well-equipped to know what to expect. That is, her surprises; this book contains her usual twists and turns. It is well-performed. In the absence of Christie's customary sleuths, Marple or Poirot, the story seemed to have a little more flexibility in that the story doesn't have to return to one figure for discoveries/reveals. To me, that made it even more enjoyable. I got both new characters and a new story.

UGH!

The story might have been great but I couldn't get past the narrator's voice(s). The main female character sounded like a little girl with a squeaky voice which did not lend believability to the plot. Do yourself a favor if you choose this one, listen to the first 2 or 3 chapters and then skip to the last 3 chapters. You will get enough of the story, and the voice!