Rhys Bowen Evanly Bodies

Evanly Bodies

Rhys Bowen

St. Martin's, Aug 2006, $23.95

ISBN 0312349424

In Llanfair, Wales Detective Constable Evan Evans heads home at night when he sees the light in a corner store. He investigates and meets the new owner of a grocery store, Pakistani Azeem Khan and his hostile son Rashid, a college student. As he greets them, Evan notices that the younger one's accent is more Yorkshire than Asian. Not everyone welcomes the "heathens"; Rashid assumes because they are Muslins, but Evan knows that any stranger would be glared at including the English. Not long afterward, Evan learns that Azeem has arranged a marriage for his sixteen year old daughter Jamilla

DI Bragg leads an investigation into the shooting death of History professor Martin Rogers while he ate breakfast. Bragg informs Major Incident Team member Evans that he is to be a junior officer on the case and no more. Meanwhile Bragg believes that the wife Madeleine known as "Missy" killed her husband, but Evans doubts that the egg shell of this case has been broken yet. He is proven right when two more homicides occur while Missy resides in jail on a murder charge at the same time that Jamilla has run away from home.

In his seventh police procedural Evan is at his best as he works for the aptly named Bragg who wants all the glory so knowing the constable's reputation for success tries to limit his role to that of a gopher. The whodunit is cleverly devised and filled with twists as the locals suspect the foreign newcomers while Bragg somewhat agrees though he still thinks Missy killed her husband; only Evan and his wife Bronwyn feel the serial killer is someone else. Fans will appreciate the final stunning heart-wrenching spin in what may be the preeminent novel in one of the sub-genre's consistently best series.

Harriet Klausner