Bowen, Rhys – EVANLY BODIES

[LJ Roberts]

EVANLY BODIES (Police Procedural-Wales-Cont) – G Bowen, Rhys – 10^th in series
St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006- Hardcover

DC Evan Evans is newley married to Brownen, a teacher. Brownen has befriended the daughter, Jamila, of a Muslim family recently moved to the village of Llanfair. Jamila’s brother has become quite militant in his views and has influenced the family to send Jamila back to Pakistan and into an arranged marriage. Jamila has expressed fear of her brother to Brownen and has now disappeared. It’s up to Evan to find Jamila and determine just how dangerous is her brother. In the meantime, Evan has been assigned to a new squad investigating the murder of a professor shot through an open window. While the wife is a suspect, second and third killings are committed with the same MO and weapon but no obvious link between the victims.

Reading an Evan Evan’s traditional mystery is always a wonderful break from my often dark reading. While I personally would have liked a stronger sense of place—is it Wales, after all—and the dialogue a bit more fluid, I still enjoyed it. What Bowen does so well is to create an interesting cross-section of realistic characters, an interesting plot and a logical execution. What Bowen does exceptionally well is to integrate issues of the day into her story without being preachy or losing the momentum of the story. If there is a fan of the traditional mystery who has not yet discovered Ms. Bowen, for what are you waiting?