The Murder at World’s End has everything one wants in a mystery: great characters, an interesting setting and a twisty mystery with a surprise at the end.

Stephen Pike, recently of Borstal prison, is desperate for a job when a letter offering him one arrives out of the blue. He arrives at a house on an island in Cornwall that is regularly cut off by the tides. He quickly sees that something is not right. The master of the house is terrified that Halley’s Comet, will fill the air with poison gasses, make the seas rise, and destroy the earth. Everyone is the house is under orders to lock themselves in their rooms, board up the windows, and seal every crack around doors and windows with wadding.

The following morning, the master is found dead in his locked and sealed study.

But his aunt Decima, a batty elderly lady with a scientific mind, is on the case with Stephen as her sidekick.

Decimal is a wonderful character and some of the scenes in which she interacts with her family are laugh out loud funny. Highly recommended. This is a series I will definitely follow.