Friday, October 28, 2016

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters


Just 6 months until a giant asteroid (nicknamed Maia) is scheduled to destroy the Earth, Detective Hank Palace is assigned to investigate the death of Peter Zell. Most of the police force has given up on working too hard, and none of them think Palace should bother with what they believe is clearly a suicide. Something about the scene leads Palace to believe Zell has been murdered, and he is soon on a one man crusade for answers. As many people around the world are leaving their jobs, responsibilities, and even their families behind, Palace insists on working diligently to bring the killer to justice. As he pursues this case to the bitter end, his life is further complicated by his sister, Nico, and the shady characters with whom she has aligned herself.

Although there are myriad post-apocalyptic books to be read, few authors explore a pre-apocalyptic world. Here, the imminent destruction of the world is not just a backdrop, but an integral part of the mystery. People are no longer just living their lives day to day, they are desperate, unpredictable, and forced to make decisions they never thought they would have to face. This is the first book in an engrossing trilogy that will make you start to question what you would do with the knowledge that the whole world is going to end. Would you pursue your chosen career just as diligently as Palace does? Would you run off to New Orleans and party the time away? Or would you do everything you could to ensure your family survived until the last possible moment?


Winters has recently gained a lot of well-deserved praise for his new book Underground Airlines, a thriller set in an alternate current-day America where slavery still exists. Having loved that book, I was interested in reading this award-winning trilogy and was not disappointed. In this trilogy as well as his newest book, Winters uses the sometimes formulaic genre of mystery to take his readers on an existential roller coaster ride.

Posted by Portia Kapraun

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