Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?: “Bobby Jones teed up his ball, gave a short preliminary waggle, took the club back slowly, then brought it down and through with the rapidity of lightning.”

Alternate Title:  The Boomerang Clue

Detective: Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent & Bobby Jones, childhood friends

Published: September 1934

Length: 351 pages

Setting: Wales & Hampshire

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? begins with Bobby Jones, fourth son of the Vicar of Marchbolt, having a frustrating golf game with his friend, the middle-aged Doctor Thomas. Some inconsistent play culminates in a cry heard and when they arrive at the seventeenth hole, they spot a body which is lying at the bottom of a cliff.  Quickly and carefully they make their way down the edifice and discover the man is alive but has a broken back and will not last much longer.  Dr. Thomas goes to bring help, while Bobby stays with the body, but in an unexpected motion, the man opens his clear blue eyes and says distinctly, “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?”  Then he expires.  Yet in his jacket pocket is a photo of a handsome young woman.  Quickly Bobby replaces it, but he is late to play the organ at his father’s church and must rush off, leaving the body with a man in his 30s, Robert Bassington-ffrench, who happens to come by.

Cuddington Church where Bobby’s father is vicar

While beginning a new business venture with an unlucky friend, Bobby forgets about the incident, however he testifies at the inquest, very puzzled that the man’s sister was identified by a photo in his pocket, yet the brash dark woman looks nothing like the picture he saw.  Putting it off, he also forgets to relay the man’s last words, however he is visited by the sister and her husband wanting to know if her dead brother had any last words.  Bobby at first denies this but then remembers his question and writes to them telling them the dead man’s words.

The Bassington-ffrench home

After refusing an unexpected job offer from a firm in Bueno Aires, poor unsuspecting Bobby goes on a picnic and is almost poisoned by a bottle of beer. Although the police are unimpressed, Bobby’s friend, Lady Frances Derwent, or Frankie, is certain it was attempted murder.  When they see the photograph in the paper that was used to identify the dead man’s sister, they are certain that it was Bassington-ffrench who replaced it.

Following Bassington-ffrench to his brother and sister-in-law’s home, Merroway Court, in Hampshire, they stage a fake car accident outside of it.  Frankie, pretending to be injured, is invited to remain as a guest.  Now, nicely ensconced at Merroway Court, Frankie begins her investigation and Bobby, still disguised as her chauffeur, does his own snooping.  They soon discover that the puzzling twists and turns in this case will make for a mystery that will not be easily solved!

Rose Pratt Cottage (Cuddington Buckinghamshire)
~ source Wikimedia Commons

The novel received reasonably positive reviews yet with another negative critique by Robert Barnard in the 1980s.  Why Wikipedia keeps referring to his opinions, I have no idea as they are always unfavourable, and unnaturally and unfairly critical.  He kind of sounds like a grump.  I wouldn’t say this mystery was an amazing favourite of mine but it was definitely one of her better attempts, and Frankie and Bobby were thoroughly likeable.  They weren’t intellectual rock stars, but they illustrated how perseverance and, yes, luck, can bring success if one doesn’t give up.

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