In the short story The Coming of Mr Quin, Tom Evesham is the host of the New Year's Eve house party at Royston which forms the main setting for the events in the story.
Tom is described as being genial and good-humoured. He and Sir Richard Conway are described as being "much of the same type-honest upright kindly men with no great pretensions to brains".
Tom is a politician. Some years earlier, he had been persuaded by his wife Lady Laura Evesham to stand in the election of the member of parliament for West Kidleby. As a result he was obliged to live up to his political role which implied buying a suitable house. Fortunately for him, Royston was going cheap at the time because it had a reputation of being haunted.
Through the course of the evening at the house party, conversation turned to the former owner of the house, Derek Capel, a successful person in the prime of his life who suddenly and mysteriously committed suicide although just a few minutes earlier he had announced to some friends that he was engaged to be married. By coincidence, Tom Evesham was a house guest of Capel at Royston at that time, and so was another of the present house party guests, Sir Richard Conway.
Tom suggests that they hold a Court of Inquiry into the circumstances of Capel's death, asking Mr Quin if they will be as likely to arrive at the truth now, as they would have been at the time. He is doubtful when Mr Quin says that they are more likely to arrive at the truth now that time has passed, but they decide to do it anyway.