{"id":6853,"date":"2025-12-30T09:43:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T17:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6853"},"modified":"2025-12-30T09:43:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T17:43:19","slug":"ross-montgomery-the-murder-at-worlds-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/ross-montgomery-the-murder-at-worlds-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Ross Montgomery: The Murder at World’s End"},"content":{"rendered":"

Series debut<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In 1910 many people thought that poison gases in the tail of the soon to be arriving Halley\u2019s Comet would mean the end of the world, providing a memorable milieu for this clever mystery set in England.\u00a0 At Tithe Hall in remote World\u2019s End, the Lord of the manor, Viscount Stockingham-Welt, is so convinced of the coming apocalypse that he\u2019s filling his house full of guests (as well as servants) and sealing them in their rooms to prevent entry of poisonous gasses.\u00a0 Into this \u201cMasque of the Red Death\u201d\u00a0 steps Stephen Pike, recently released from prison, thinking he\u2019s secured a job as a second footman.<\/p>\n

The butler appears to have not been notified of his arrival, but because Stephen has been endorsed by a family member, he takes him on, not least because there\u2019s a massive amount of work involved in sealing off the house.\u00a0 As the newest employee, the unpleasant job that falls to him is securing the crazy auntie, the fearsome Lady Decima, in the attic (actually the nursery) and spending the night with her.<\/p>\n

While Decima is indeed as opinionated and profane as advertised, she\u2019s no dummy, and far from a bore.\u00a0 Scientifically trained, she scorns her nephew\u2019s fear of the comet and demands that Stephen wheel her outside to view it and take notes.\u00a0 After the rest of the house is locked up that\u2019s exactly what they do, enjoying a view of a comet that no one would see again until 1986.\u00a0 When Stephen finally gets her back inside, he falls into an exhausted sleep, only to be awakened by the butler demanding he begin unsealing the rooms.<\/p>\n

He starts with the Viscount\u2019s, and, seeing bloody cotton wadding protruding under the door, enlists the first footman to help him break it down, only to find Stockingham-Welt\u2019s corpse within. Somehow the man has been shot through the eye with a crossbow, most probably with the missing bolt from on a nearby suit of armor, setting up a classic locked room conundrum. With everyone sealed in their rooms (except Stephen and Decima) how was the Viscount murdered inside his own locked chamber?\u00a0 And why are all his fish dead?<\/p>\n

These questions are supposed to be answered by the detective who arrives punctually, immediately concluding that an ex-con like Stephen must be the guilty party.\u00a0 Disgusted, Decima decides that she and Stephen will instead lead their own parallel investigation, assisted by housemaid Temperance. The trio uses rational and scientific deduction to eliminate suspects, but as first one promising theory and then another are disproven, they become discouraged, even as the bonds between Decima and Stephen grow.<\/p>\n

There are several other deaths before they are finally able to come up with a common solution.\u00a0 The pairing of these two well drawn, contrasting personalities is one of the strengths of the novel, as are the evergreen golden age tropes and old school methods of detection.\u00a0 Although set in 1910, it doesn\u2019t have the stodgy feel of some historical novels, instead relying on the depiction of social classes and the appearance of Halley\u2019s Comet to serve as a fascinating backdrop to a snappy story. A fun read, The Murder at World\u2019s End<\/em> is an extremely promising first in a series outing. —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Series debut In 1910 many people thought that poison gases in the tail of the soon to be arriving Halley\u2019s Comet would mean the end of the world, providing a memorable milieu for this clever mystery set in England.\u00a0 At Tithe Hall in remote World\u2019s End, the Lord of the manor, Viscount Stockingham-Welt, is so … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2372,2373,10,1276,2370,2371,291],"class_list":["post-6853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1910-britain","tag-halleys-comet","tag-historical","tag-robin-agnew","tag-ross-montgomery","tag-the-murder-at-worlds-end","tag-william-morrow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6855,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6853\/revisions\/6855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}