It’s 1910 in Cornwall, and Halley’s comet is coming in hot. Steven Pike, newly released from a Borstal, arrives at Tithe Hall with a letter of recommendation for a second footman position and quickly discovers the position doesn’t exist. But the estate is in chaos as the Viscount of Tithe Hall, the pretentious Lord Conrad Stockingham-Welt, believes the comet is bringing the end of the world with it. The staff are sealing up the estate against the coming apocalypse, and Steven is hired to assist. However, his primary responsibility is one no one in the house wants: tend to Decima Stockingham.
Banished to a crumbling nursery and deemed unfit for company, Decima is the Viscount’s elderly, f bomb dropping, razor-sharp, and utterly impossible aunt. She’s grumpy, arrogant, and deliciously rude, but quickly becomes an unlikely ally. Because cof Lord Stockingham-Welt, found dead in his sealed-up study with a crossbow bolt through his eye.
Naturally, suspicion lands squarely on Steven, with a not too bright police inspector determined to arrest him. To clear his name, Steven teams up with Decima, whose barbed wit and formidable intelligence make her the perfect partner to hunt for a killer.
Their investigation gives both of them something they’ve long been denied: agency. Decima’s brilliance and potential was smothered for decades by her father and then her brother-in-law, and Steven’s life choices were shaped by poverty and desperation. Yet together they’re able to achieve what they can’t on their own. This mismatched duo creates a partnership that shouldn’t work—but absolutely does. And it’s this unexpected, endearing chemistry that makes The Murder at World’s End such a treat.
A clever, witty, and charming debut to the Stockingham & Pike series. I’m already impatient for their next case.
