John Savage

In the novel Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, John Savage was a businessman and a millionaire. While travelling from America to Britain on board a ship, he met and became attracted to a good-looking woman by the name of Mrs Templeton. Mrs Templeton then invited him to stay with her and her husband at their home, Tudor Cottage in Chipping Somerton. Savage was known to have visited the Templetons several times. On the last visit, he became worried that he might have contracted cancer--it preoccupied him because several of his ancestors had died of the same illness. He consulted a specialist who assured him that he did not have cancer. Apparently he was not satisfied as shortly thereafter he committed suicide, having taken an overdose of chloral. As Savage had no close relations, he left most of his estate in his will to Mrs Templeton.

Savage was a friend of Alan Carstairs, a big game hunter who had accompanied the millionaire on a tour of Africa only the year before. He thought the will was out of character and that Savage was too worldly wise to come under undue influence from a woman. He proceeded to investigate but was murdered before he could complete his work. Investigations by Bobby Jones and Frankie Derwent subsequently established that Savage was the victim of an elaborate plan by Roger Bassington-ffrench and Moira Nicholson to obtain his fortune. This involved faking the process of making a will and then murdering him.

Savage once owned the yacht, the Astradora. His supposed suicide led to the speculation that she was an unlucky boat--the designer had met a tragic end and another well-known yachtsman, Sir John Milkington had been injured in an accident while sailing her.

ITV's Agatha Christie's Marple
In the 2008 ITV adaptation, the character is morphed into Jack Savage, a person with a different backstory. He too is murdered and a fake will is made in his name but the provisions of the will and the motives for the killing are different.

Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie
In Pourquoi pas Martin?, the France Televisions adaptation of the novel for the TV series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, the parallel character has the similar name of Jean Savage.