Famous detective Jules Poiret and his friend Captain Haven are invited to the birthday party of Lady Malvern. Poiret's joy of seeing his old friend again is short lived when Lady Malvern is murdered. Poiret takes this murder to heart and vows revenge.

According to Wikipedia, Jules Poiret was inspired by Sherlock Holmes and in turn inspired Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. Created in 1909 by writer Frank Howel Evans, Jules Poiret is one of the grandfathers of the British detective genre.

An ex-BBC researcher, Margaret Osoba, has now, in the centenary year, come up with the theory that Agatha Christie stole her character from a turn of the century thriller writer, Frank Howel Evans. In 1909 when Agatha was 19 and had begun to write, Evans published a story about a detective named Poiret with much of Poirot's mannerisms and speech patterns.

A full listing of Frank's writings has been given by Mrs Margaret Osoba in her article, 'The Strange Case of Monsieur Poiret', in the June 2000 number of the Book and Magazine Collector (No. 195, pages 27 to 31). It is a significant article well worth referring to, as is Mrs Osoba's earlier biography of Frank in the April 1993 edition of Country Quest (Vol. 33:No. 11, pp. 28-29: 'Old Pawray the roots of a detective'). In these articles, Mrs Osoba argues that Agatha Christie must have got her idea for 'M. Poirot' from Frank's 'M. Poiret' (in the New Magazine, 1909-10), and the title for her 'Mouse Trap' from his book, 'Murder Trap'. Frank's major contribution to magazines came in Union Jack (1906-08;Sexton Blake stories), in Penny Popular (1913) and in Champion (1923-24). Under the nom-de-plume of 'Crutchley Payne' he contributed to Chumand, early on, using the pen-name of Atherley Daunt', wrote a number of stories for the stage. These reflected his acting experience. The 1906 Christmas Double number of Answers summed up Frank's career to that point in time: 'Mr Evans is one of Answers' most valued contributors. A large proportion of the humorous illustrated articles, which are so popular a feature of this journal, are from his pen. His first profession was the stage; but, after many and varied experiences, he turned to journalism, in which calling, after the usual early struggle for recognition, he has met with much success, and may be considered one of the leading humorists of the day'. Frank's books, mostly crime fiction, were written between 1917 and 1930. His A Girl Alone (1917) and The Murder Club (1924) both had American editions, as had his play, The Wrong Side of the Road.