A quick read but at the end of the day never quite felt the sense of “the game is afoot.” Montgomery does a fantastic job of fleshing out a very large cast of characters– I was a bit worried at the outset when they were all being described without names, but as soon as our narrator (Stephen) learns who they are, we very quickly learn who they are as well. But each of their motivations lacks just a touch of depth such that there are eventual eliminations from potential suspect list lck some of that aha moment.
In form this is a very classic locked room mystery, except that the room is a massive house on a peninsula that is inaccessible from the mainland during high tide. The precipitating event is the arrival of Comet Halley, which our murder victim — the quite unpleasant Viscount of World’s End — believes will precipitate an apocalypse. Said apocalypse will include a noxious gas in the atmosphere which necessitates everyone being sealed into their rooms. When he wakes up the next morning (or doesn’t, as the case may be) we know that the murderer must be on the island and cannot have left.
So as to create some Intrigue, our narrator, Stephan is paired up with Miss Decima, an old unmarried lady aunt with a scientific mind who is determined to put her intellect to use and solve the murder. The dynamic between the two is meant to be a bit of an odd couple situation, where I felt that Stephan couldn’t quite hold up his end. Their trio is flushed out by Temperance, one of the maids, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of murder, mysteries turns out to be helpful in the detective work.
But like I said, I did read this book pretty much in one sitting and it kept my attention while I waited in a queue, and for that I thank it.
