Infinite Books

It’s May 1910, and the Haley Comet is once again passing close enough to Earth to be visible with the naked eye. And once again, some take it as an engaging scientific experience, while others prepare for the end of the world. At the small tidal island off the Cornish coastline, Lord Stockingham-Welt is busy giving instructions to his main butler, Mr. Stokes. Every window, door, and chimney is to be boarded, every crack sealed with wads of cotton, and every guest and staff member has to stay in their locked room. When the comet passes, the Viscount is found dead in his locked room.

The family, friends, and the entire household are not as much saddened as surprised, but the new second footman, Stephen Pike, is terrified. Freshly out of prison, for a crime he didn’t commit, he knows he will be the main suspect. Luckily, he has an unexpected ally in the matriarch of the house, the Great-Aunt Decima. She is behind hiring Stephen, mainly because she wanted a young butler to push her bath chair so she could observe the comet from the grounds and not be stuck in her room, behind a boarded door. Together, they form an unlikely duo of detectives, and it becomes clear that with Aunt Decima’s scientific, logical mind and Stephen’s skills of observation, there is a hope that the crime could be solved before the murderer strikes again.

“The Murder at World’s End” was such an enjoyable book! I loved the weird characters that populate the pages: the German professor Muller, the lady-in black Lettice Welt with her seven-year-old son Gilbert, who looks like lifted from Edward Gorey’s illustrations, but most of all, I admired Aunt Decima and Stephen. There is a humor in their interactions and in Stephen’s behavior when he tries to adjust to his new role as a butler. This charming, intelligent mystery is the first book in the series, and like the opening of the PBS Masterpiece, it promises and delivers a fun story. I hope we’ll see more of the adventures of Aunt Decima and Stephen soon.

THE MURDER AT THE WORLD’S END by Ross Montgomery, published byWilliam Morrow, 2026