One-Line Summary
On a storm-sealed Cornish island awaiting Halley’s Comet, a viscount is found dead inside his locked study — and a disgraced under-butler must unmask the killer before the tide traps them all.
Opening Impression
The Murder at World’s End begins like a fog-bound stage play: servants whispering, shutters nailed shut, and superstition thick as salt air. Ross Montgomery fuses golden-age craft with gothic unease. The year is 1910; Halley’s Comet has Londoners praying and panicking. On a remote Cornish island, a paranoid lord seals his mansion against cosmic doom—by dawn, he lies skewered by his own crossbow. It’s an irresistible premise: a Christie puzzle shot through with du Maurier dread and a touch of gallows humour.
Synopsis
When Viscount Stockingham is discovered dead in his locked study, suspicion falls on Stephen Pike, an ex-convict under-butler with more sense than polish. With the causeway flooded and help cut off, Pike teams up with Decima Stockingham—an octogenarian aunt whose tongue could flay marble—to find the truth. Beneath the drawing-room civility, they uncover feuds, hidden passages, and an obsession linking the comet’s orbit to the house’s secrets. As wind and tide rise, the manor becomes both crime scene and clockwork trap.
Analysis
Structure: A locked-room puzzle wrapped in slow-burn gothic suspense. Each chapter tightens the coil through interrogation, discovery, and dry wit; the mystery unfolds with fairness and flourish.
Characterisation: Pike is the pragmatic outsider, keenly aware of class lines he can’t cross; Decima is magnificent—profane, fearless, and wickedly observant. Their odd-couple partnership gives the story warmth and bite in equal measure.
Style & Voice: Montgomery’s prose is crisp and musical, steeped in sea-spray detail. Dialogue sparkles with period rhythm; Cornwall’s isolation hums in every sound—the tick of the barometer, the crash of distant surf.
Themes: Faith versus science, class prejudice, and the folly of controlling the uncontrollable. Beneath the fun of detection runs a quiet rebellion: truth voiced from society’s margins.
Verdict
The Murder at World’s End revitalises the country-house mystery with atmosphere and heart. It’s witty, eerie, and humane—a sealed-door puzzle that feels entirely alive. For readers who relish Christie’s precision, du Maurier’s shadows, or Cornish gothic storms, this one gleams like lantern-light through the fog.
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