A review of "The Boomerang Clue" (Why didn’t they ask Evans?)

The Boomerang Clue (Why didn’t they ask Evans?) by Agatha Christie

A personal view by Jose Atencio

Bobby Jones was a twenty-eight-year-old man who lived in Marchbolt, a small seaside town on the coast of Wales. He was the fourth son of the Vicar of that town, and he lived with his father and the housemaid, Mrs. Roberts. On one day, he was playing golf near a cliff with his friend, Dr. Thomas, when he suddenly noticed that a man was lying on the rocks, near the sea; apparently he had fallen down from the upper side of the coast. Dr. Thomas ran away for help, and Booby descended to see the man. After some minutes, the man of the accident died, but before passing away he pronounced these words: “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” Bobby realized that the man had died, and he could see the picture of a woman in the dead man’s pocket. He watched the photo and then he put it in the same place. While he was waiting for help, a strange man arrived and introduced himself as Roger Bassington-ffrench. As Bobby had to play the organ at the local church, he asked Roger to look after the body.

Bobby could tell the details of the accident to a friend called Frankie Derwent, a rich and intelligent lady of Marchbolt. Everything seemed to be just an accident until some odd things started to occur. Bobby received a strange letter from a firm in Buenos Aires, offering him a job in that South American city; then he almost died after drinking a beer with a certain amount of morphia. And finally, the local newspaper published a picture of a woman that was not the same one that he had seen the day of the accident in the man’s pocket.

Frankie and Bobby decided to find out more about Roger, so they decided to go to his house and they planned a fake accident in order to have the chance of entering Roger’s house. Frankie pretended to be injured so that she could be taken into the Bassington-ffrench’s residence. There, she could meet Roger’s brother (Henry) and Roger’s sister in law, Sylvia. At the same time, Bobby acted as Frankie’s chauffer.

After some days, Frankie realized that Roger was not a suspicious man; on the contrary, he seemed to be a nice and peaceful man. She happened to meet some neighbors: Dr. Nicholson and his wife, Moira. From the very first moment, Frankie did not like Dr. Nicholson. For some reasons they started to think of Dr. Nicholson as a criminal. Dr. Nicholson was a Canadian who ran a mental hospital in the neighborhood. His hospital was believed to be a mysterious and dangerous place, and Nicholson was believed to be a notorious and merciless man. When Booby met Mrs. Nicholson for the first time, he immediately realized that she was the woman of the picture that he saw the day of the accident. In addition, she confessed that she felt afraid of her own husband and predicted that she would be murdered by him. It soon became apparent that Henry Bassington-ffrench (Roger’s brother) was addicted to drugs. Frankie and Bobby suspected that Henry was being supplied by Dr. Nicholson, who also seemed to be attracted to Sylvia (Roger’s sister in law). After a while, Henry was found dead in his studio, apparently after committing suicide, and then Moira disappeared. Those facts raised the alarm in Bobby and Frankie’s hearts, and made them start the adventure of finding Moira Nicholson.

In the meanwhile, Frankie and Bobby found out that a very rich man, called John Savage had committed suicide after being told that he had cancer, and that he had left all his money to a strange woman, called Mrs. Templeton. They also found out that the man who had fallen from the cliff was Alan Carstairs. It happened to be that Alan Carstairs was a very close friend of John Savage. After John Savage’s suicide, his friend Alan came to Wales to investigate about the strange suicide. Upon inquiry, Frankie could know that Mr. Savage had written his last will asking two employees to witness the signature: the cook and the gardener… It was very odd to ask those two people to be the witnesses, instead of asking the housemaid who was supposed to be closer. Mr. Savage lived with his housemaid, his cook and the gardener. If Mr. Savage was about to write his last will, it should have been obvious to ask the closest people around him. Instead of asking the housemaid, he asked the cook and the gardener to witness the signature of the will. This fact was really striking. Frankie could finally understand Alan Carstairs’ last words: “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” The reason was this: Mr. Carstairs’ housemaid was called Evans. If the housemaid was believed to be the closest person in Mr. Carstairs house, why didn’t they ask her to witness the signature? Perhaps, the answer stands upon the fact that Evans could have noticed that the man who wrote the will was not the actual Mr. Carstairs. Could have been an impostor…?

Bobby and Frankie, the amateur detectives, tried to find the traces of Mrs. Moira Nicholson. They thought that she could have been abducted by Nicholson, and she was believed to be in real danger. That’s why they went to an old house and they were caught by a mysterious man. The mysterious man introduced himself as Dr. Nicholson, but they could not be deceived easily: Frankie could tell, after seeing the man’s face, that he was not the real Dr. Nicholson. After struggling, they caught the criminal and crushed the real identity: the man was Roger. They finally found out that Roger had been a talented actor who impersonated Dr. Nicholson and other people, too. They tried to catch Roger but he could leave the town without leaving any trace. They also discovered that Moira was not true, and that SHE was Mrs. Templeton, the woman who inherited Savage’s fortune. In fact, she was an impostor together with Roger. They both had stolen money from rich people and now, they were about to be discovered by two amateur detectives (Bobby and Frankie).

Bobby and Frankie’s investigation led them to a woman who told them about the moment in which Mr. Savage wrote his will. The weird thing was that the housemaid was not asked to witness it: her name was Mrs. Evans. It happened to be that Mrs. Evans was currently servicing at the Vicarage of Marchbolt, and that she was known by her husband’s surname: Mrs. Roberts. She had been the housemaid of Mr. Savage before working at the vicarage. She was not asked to witness Savage’s last will because she was the only person who could notice that Mr. Savage was not really Mr. Savage, but an impostor. That is why the name of the novel is “The Boomerang Clue”: the answer of the mysterious words “Why didn’t they ask Evans” was in the same place from where they started the investigation, that is, Bobby’s own house.

José D. Atencio.

August 8th, 2015.