ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery
Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery will be published by Viking Books on 30th October. My thanks to the publishers for the lovely proof package.
Cornwall, 1910. On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will accompany the passing of Halley’s Comet. The Hall must be sealed from top to bottom – every window, chimney and keyhole closed off before night falls. But what the pompous, dishonest Viscount has failed to take into account is the danger that lies within… By morning, he will be dead in his sealed study, murdered by his own ancestral crossbow.
All eyes turn to Stephen Pike, Tithe Hall’s newest under-butler. Fresh out of Borstal for a crime he didn’t commit, he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. His unlikely ally? Miss Decima Stockingham, the foul-mouthed, sharp as a tack, 80-year-old family matriarch. Fearless and unconventional, she relishes chaos and puzzles alike, and a murder is just the thrill she’s been waiting for.
Together, this mismatched duo must navigate secret passages, buried grudges and rising terror to unmask the killer before it’s too late…
Murder at World’s End is the first book in a new series to feature Stephen Pike and Miss Decima Stockingham. Stephen goes to Tithe Hall on a tidal island in Cornwall in 1910, as a new member of staff, just at the point when Halley’s Comet is due to pass Earth. There was a public panic and many believed the comet would destroy the earth so as Stephen arrives he finds the Viscount frantically making some rather irrational preparations. When the Viscount is found murdered Stephen teams up with Miss Decima, the Viscount’s elderly aunt, to try and solve the locked room mystery.
As settings go, this was a perfect one for a locked room mystery. Not only is it a tidal island but everything was to be sealed and everybody was to be enclosed in their rooms until morning, so how the Viscount met his death is a true conundrum. I liked the two main protagonists and can see how they will work well together in a series. Stephen is a bit hapless at times but a kind and thoughtful person. Miss Decima is foul-mouthed and sharp as a tack. As a crime-solving duo they fit perfectly.
I didn’t see the denouement coming at all so that was a clever bit of plotting, Murder at World’s End is witty and incisive and good fun for those who enjoy a historical crime caper.
Ross Montgomery is the author of award-winning books for children. His novels have been twice shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book of the Year and twice selected for the Waterstones’ Children’s Book of the Month, as well as chosen for the Sunday Times ‘Top 100 Modern Children’s Classics’. His latest, I Am Rebel, was an immediate bestseller, chosen by Waterstones as their Children’s Book of the Year 2024.
He lives in London with his wife, a baby, and a cat named Fun Bobby. The Murder at World’s End is his first adult novel.