May 1939. When Amy Rowlings and Inspector Bodkin are invited to a black-tie civic awards ceremony at the Town Hall, they expect to be met with the usual boring speeches and toe-curling sycophancy, but when the recipient of the night's 'Businessman Of The Year Award', Nelson Kelly, is found stabbed to death after being called from the stage to answer the telephone, the evening begins to liven up. Nelson's company has just won a lucrative contract to build a new armaments factory and many of the town's elite, having backed a rival bidder, aren't happy at missing out. When the CID department at the local police station is suddenly reduced in manpower, Bodkin is told he will have to manage the murder investigation alone. Into the breach steps young Amy Rowlings, the 21-year-old with a mind every bit as sharp as her fictional hero, Hercule Poirot. Amy, an avid crime fiction reader, movie buff and collector of American records, brings her insight and intelligence to the aid of the overstretched inspector as he attempts to find a way through the morass of lies, deception and corruption. Once again, Amy must utilise all the investigative techniques she has learned from Agatha Christie's famous detective to help bring a brutal killer to justice.