Not bad.

Reviewers love this book.

The Murder at World’s End (2025) historical mystery novel by Ross Montgomery, marking his debut in adult fiction. It is the first installment in a new series titled Stockingham & Pike.

Set in 1910 Cornwall, the story revolves around the real-world mass hysteria following the appearance of Halley’s Comet.

• The Premise: Fearing an apocalypse caused by the comet’s “poisonous tail,” the eccentric Viscount of Tithe Hall seals every window, door, and keyhole of his remote island estate to protect his household.
• The Murder: Despite the absolute lockdown, the Viscount is found dead in his sealed study the following morning, shot with an ancestral crossbow.
• The Investigation: With a local inspector determined to frame a young under-butler named Stephen Pike due to his past criminal record, Pike teams up with the foul-mouthed, sharp-witted 80-year-old family matriarch, Miss Decima Stockingham, to find the true killer within the manor.

Love the concept. But the 3rd book in the Jane Hawk series seemed to drag.

Jane Hawk Books

Jane Hawk knows she may be living on borrowed time. But as long as she’s breathing, she’ll never cease her one-woman war against the terrifying conspiracy that threatens the freedom—and free will—of millions.

Battling the strange epidemic of murder-suicides that claimed Jane’s husband, and is escalating across the country, has made the rogue FBI agent a wanted fugitive, relentlessly hunted not only by the government but by the secret cabal behind the plot.

Deploying every resource their malign nexus of power and technology commands, Jane’s enemies are determined to see her dead . . . or make her wish she was.

Jane’s ruthless pursuers can’t stop her from drawing a bead on her prey: a cunning man with connections in high places, a twisted soul of unspeakable depths with an army of professional killers on call.

Propelled by her righteous fury and implacable insistence on justice, Jane will make her way from southern Southern California to the snow-swept slopes of Lake Tahoe to confront head-on the lethal forces arrayed against her.

Arundathi Roy is best known for for her novel The God of Small Things (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the biggest-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author.

BUT she’s actually only written two novels.

Arundathi Roy is more of a political activist than writer.

Mother Mary Comes to Me (2025) is her memoir, critically praised. I enjoyed it, as well, but found it too self-critical.

It’s original in publishing an autobiography much centred on her complex relationship with mother, Mary Roy.

I wish she’d write more novels.

Rubbernecker (2014) is an award-winning crime novel by Belinda Bauer that follows Patrick Fort, a medical student with Asperger’s Syndrome who suspects the cadaver he is dissecting was murdered. Most reviewers describe it as a dark, original, and compelling thriller with a uniquely well-drawn protagonist. 

According to The Sunday Times, “one of the most startling plots in contemporary crime fiction”. 

Patrick Fort: An anatomy student who sees the world through the lens of his neurodivergence. 

The Coma Patient: A significant portion of the book is told from the perspective of Sam, a man in a “locked-in” state after a car accident. 

… detailed accounts of car crashes and anatomy lab dissections may be too gruesome for the squeamish.

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I thought I’d read everything written by Robert Sawyer, but somehow missed this excellent story.

AI summary:

Rollback is a 2007 science fiction novel by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer that explores the social and ethical consequences of extreme life extension alongside a first-contact scenario.

The story follows an elderly couple who undergo a rejuvenation procedure, only for it to succeed for one and fail for the other, creating a massive age gap between them. 

Plot Summary

Set in the mid-21st century, the narrative centers on Dr. Sarah Halifax, an astronomer who gained fame decades earlier for decoding the first message from an alien civilization at Sigma Draconis.

When a second, encrypted message arrives 38 years later, a billionaire industrialist offers to fund a “rollback“—a staggeringly expensive medical treatment that reverts a person’s body to age 25—so Sarah can live long enough to decode it.

Sarah agrees only on the condition that her husband of sixty years, Don Halifax, also receives the treatment. The resulting conflict drives the novel: 

• The Rejuvenation Gap: The procedure is a success for Don but fails for Sarah, leaving her in her late 80s while her husband physically returns to his youth.
• Interpersonal Struggles: Don must navigate his newfound vitality and the complexities of being physically younger than his own children, all while remaining devoted to his aging wife.
• The Alien Message: Parallel to the domestic drama, Sarah works to decipher the new transmission, which involves complex moral and ethical questions posed by the extraterrestrials. 

Key Themes and Accolades

• Philosophical Science Fiction: Sawyer explores “intimately human” dilemmas, such as fidelity, mortality, and the societal impact of radical technology.
• Ethics and Evolution: The story examines whether morality changes over generations or across different species.
• Awards: The novel was nominated for the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2008.