他是谁：《悬崖上的谋杀》选读

商务印书馆英语编辑室 2022-06-09

2020年12月18日，侦探类综艺节目《明星大侦探》第六季回归演唱会开播了。在演唱会之后，这一季每一期需要推理找出真凶的案件到来了。该节目脚本制作团队除正式编剧外，还有众多推理迷。而说到推理，就不得不说侦探小说。

侦探小说是一种深受大众喜爱的通俗文学类型。作为侦探小说“黄金时代”的代表人物之一，阿加莎·克里斯蒂、柯南·道尔和松本清张并称世界三大推理宗师。她的小说具有独特的情节设计、语言表达和思想内涵，使其成为举世公认的“侦探推理小说女王”，拥有广泛的读者，甚至连英国女王伊丽莎白二世和法国总统戴高乐也是她忠实的仰慕者。

她对人性的解读、女性意识的展示，不仅满足了人们悬疑解谜的乐趣和语言审美的快感，更能引发对社会和人性的深邃思考，体现其作品独特的魅力。她的作品于20世纪四五十年代被翻译介绍到中国，自20世纪八九十年代以来愈加受到青睐，译介作品层出不穷。

像《明星大侦探》中的部分内容，正是在致敬经典。比如第二季的《暗黑童谣》，就致敬了阿加莎的《无人生还》和《黑麦奇案》（点击回顾）。那么这次再来看一部以前没有介绍过的《悬崖上的谋杀》吧。其实，这本书还有一个直译书名——《为什么他们不问埃文斯》。谋杀一类惊悚词汇，在阿加莎作品中经常出现，这部作品的谋杀又与悬崖绝壁联系在一起，更觉奇绝，其作品悬疑的设计以及解惑的魅力经久不衰。在查案的过程中，Bobby和Frankie又会遇到什么样的危险呢？现在就来一睹为快吧。

Chapter 1 The Accident

Bobby Jones swung his golf club and hit his ball very hard. Did the ball fly straight and upwards? No, it did not. It raced along the ground and into the sand in the bunker! Bobby, the fourth son of the vicar of Marchbolt, a small seaside town in Wales, swore. He was a pleasant-looking young man of about twenty-eight and his eyes had the honest brown friendliness of a dog’s eyes.

bunker n. （高尔夫球场中的）沙坑

vicar n. （英国国教的）教区牧师

‘I get worse every day,’ he said to himself sadly.

Bobby then hit his ball really hard twice. The third time he successfully hit the ball out of the sand and it now lay a short distance from the hole he had been aiming at. His friend, Dr Thomas, a middle-aged man with a cheerful face, had reached it with two good shots.

‘Well done,’ said Bobby.

They went on to the next hole. The doctor went first – a nice straight shot. Bobby sighed, shut his eyes, raised his head, lowered his right shoulder – everything he should not have done – and hit a beautiful shot down the middle of the course. His sad expression changed into one of great happiness.

‘I know now what I’ve been doing wrong,’ said Bobby – quite untruthfully.

Full of confidence, he again did everything he should not have done, and this time there was no miracle. The ball went to the right instead of to the front!

miracle n. 奇迹

‘If that had been straight …!’ said Dr Thomas with obvious relief.

‘If,’ said Bobby bitterly. ‘Hello, I thought I heard a shout! I hope the ball didn’t hit anyone.’

He looked to the right. But looking into the setting sun it was hard to see anything clearly and there was a mist rising from the sea. The edge of the cliff was a few hundred yards away.

cliff n. 悬崖

yard n. 码（长度单位，约等于91.4厘米）

‘The footpath runs along there,’ said Bobby, ‘and I do think I heard a cry. Did you?’

The doctor had heard nothing but they walked towards the cliff edge.

Far below the sea sparkled in the sun.

‘Doctor!’ Bobby exclaimed. ‘What do you make of that?’ Twelve yards below was a pile of what looked like clothes. By Jove! Somebody has fallen over the cliff.’

pile n. 堆

By Jove 天啊（旧时表示惊讶的一种说法）

There was a difficult path down and the two men made their way carefully to the dark pile. It was a man of about forty and he was still breathing, though unconscious. The doctor knelt to examine him. Then he looked up at Bobby and shook his head.

unconscious adj. 不省人事的

‘He is dying, poor fellow. There is nothing I can do for him – his back is broken. Well, I suppose he wasn’t familiar with the path and when the mist rose, he walked over the edge. I’ll go and make arrangements to have him brought up. It’s possible he may recover consciousness before the end; but very likely he won’t. Will you stay?’

fellow n. 家伙

consciousness n. 清醒

Bobby nodded. ‘Is there really nothing that we can do for him?’

The doctor shook his head. ‘Nothing, I’m afraid.’

As the doctor climbed the cliff, Bobby lit a cigarette. What terrible luck! A sudden mist, a slip – and life came to an end. Healthy-looking fellow, too, with a deep suntan. A man who had lived an out-of-door life – abroad, perhaps. Bobby studied him – the curly brown hair, the strong jaw. An attractive face ... As he thought that, the eyes suddenly opened. They were a clear, deep blue and looked straight at Bobby.

jaw n. 下巴

He spoke. ‘Why didn’t they ask Evans?’

Then a shudder passed over him, the eyelids closed … The man was dead.

shudder n.（因恐惧或厌恶而产生的抖动）

文化注释：

Evans

The name Evans was a common surname in Wales, which is why Frankie thought there would be at least 700 Evanses in Marchbolt.

埃文斯

埃文斯是常见的威尔士姓氏，因此 Frankie才会认为 Marchbolt会有最少 700 个埃文斯。

( 以上内容节选自《悬崖上的谋杀》，图片来自网络)

《悬崖上的谋杀》是“阿加莎·克里斯蒂经典侦探作品集”丛书之一。
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