locked room mystery | Book Girl & Little Bear

The Murder at World’s End: A Stockingham & Pike Mystery by Ross Montgomery

The setting for this locked room mystery is Tithe Hall off the coast of Cornwall in 1910, featuring the dramatic return of Halley’s Comet.

Viscount Conrad Stockingham-Welt, along with five relatives, a German scientist, and household staff, await the return of Halley’s Comet. At high tide, the manor house is cut off from the mainland. A worldwide panic has begun as the comet nears. According to the Viscount, the comet’s tail is full of poisonous gas. He predicts floods, hailstones, and electrical storms.

The house and each bedroom, including the servants’ rooms, will be hermetically sealed, with oxygen tanks placed in each room. The brand-new second footman, Stephen Pike, finds himself assigned to a foul-mouthed old lady, Miss Decima Stockingham, the Viscount’s aunt. She uses a Bath chair to be wheeled around. After the comet passes and the world hasn’t ended, someone is found murdered in a locked and sealed room. Stephen and Temperance, a maid, assist Miss Decima in investigating, when not busy with their other duties.

Besides careful detecting, much adventure and mayhem occur, and old secrets are revealed. None of the Stockingham family members are likeable, although Miss Decima is fascinating. A will reading is entertaining, and there’s never a dull moment.

Suggested for fans of historical British mysteries, readers of locked room mysteries, and those fascinated by phenomena like Halley’s Comet. A sequel, The Shadows of Kensington Gore, will be published in January, 2027.

Brenda

Rose / House by Arkady Martine, narrated by Raquel Beattie

I listened to this science fiction/horror/locked room mystery novella set more than 100 years in the future, in a California desert. Architect Basit Deniau left Rose House for his last creation. His remains are now in a large diamond displayed in the house, which has an AI caretaker designated Rose House. Narrator Raquel Beattie does an excellent job with the voices of several humans and the AI. A basement vault in the house has files of architectural and AI designs that are highly desired by other architects and corporations. Unfortunately for them, only Dr. Selene Gisil has access to Rose House. She is a former protégé of Deniau’s who later disagreed with him, but was named archivist after Deniau’s death. Dr. Gisil can stay in Rose House for one week each year. This year, she lasted three days before she called Detective Torres of China Lake Precinct to pick her up. Water theft is the precinct’s most common crime. Torres’ partner, Officer Maritza Smith, gets a call from Rose House stating that a body has been in the house for the past 24 hours. How can she get in? Only Dr. Gisil has access, and she’s out of the country.

Rose House AI is unsettling, even creepy, especially its laugh, and the house is built in a confusing spiral pattern. There are nanites, which can form images, but may also trigger asthma. There are Andorrans (Europeans, not aliens) and, of course, roses. Many roses. This novella, while different from Martine’s longer Teixcalaan science fiction novels, beginning with A Memory Called Empire, is a compelling and memorable read.

Brenda