Countdown City

I really enjoyed The Last Policeman, but this second book I found disappointing. As I was reading it I could not stop myself thinking “I wish he had just written the first book and then decided to leave things alone”.

Sadly, I have already purchased the third book. I will read it, but I have no enthusiasm to.

Winters continues his meditation on the question, “What would you do – no, really, what would you do – if the Earth – no, forget all that claptrap, this is for real, what would you really do – if the Earth were definitely going to end soon. I do not normally read police procedurals and such-like, but these books are riveting.

For the reason why I'm re-reading this series, see my review on the first book in the trilogy - "The Last Policeman." This 2nd book, set as the astroid is weeks away from hitting earth, again has a plot that isn't what the trilogy is about for me. It's all about the question, "So, then how should we live?" Living has become tougher from when the first book concluded. The power is off, driving is rare and eventually running water also ceases. The mystery at the center wasn't super compelling for me, yet the journey through it was engaging and thought-provoking. I'd have liked to have spent more time with Henry and his sister Nico (still woefully underdeveloped) as they experienced the youth-led collective at the site of what once was UNH. It appears Nico will be the focus of the third book. I really like Henry and his voice of reason, kindness, commitment, decency and hopefulness. It's this last quality that I most want to gain from Henry. Not hope that a deus ex machina will stop the asteroid or the surely chaotic (and dangerous?) aftermath of the U.S. Election 2024. Rather the hope that good can be found in any moment by acting in goodness - regardless of what is hurtling at us.

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/review/R2XOFOWQ1SRUU8/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

It is now 77 days to the End of the World. Detective Henry Palace, recently retired from the Concord Police Department, is waiting out the arrival of asteroid Maya with his dog, Houdini, when he is approached by his former babysitter, Martha Milano nee Cavitone, about the disappearance of her husband, Brett. Brett is described by everyone as a good guy, so why would he abandon his wife and go “bucket list.” Henry agrees to take on the case for Martha to find her husband and ask him to come home.

Thereafter, Henry is on his mission with single-minded fixation, even though it takes him to the crazy, rapidly-emerging anarchic world of virtual governmental collapse. We travel with Henry to the headquarters of Homeland Security in Concord to the “Free Republic” of New Hampshire University and back to Concord. The story is pulled along as Henry follows the clues to the ultimate conclusion.

All along, of course, we are kept reminded of the imminent end of the world. What that means, or how total it will be, are still ambiguous, but the sense of hopelessness and a terminal event are felt as the survivors grow increasingly desperate. A recurrent theme is the question of why Henry is trying to solve a mystery which will never result in any criminal charges or improve anyone's happiness. The story offers some opportunities to explore some deep issues. For example:

“Among my regrets about what has just unfolded is that Brett never did ask me why I had come to find him, why I cared. I had my answer all figured out. Because a promise is a promise, Officer Cavatone, and civilization is just a bunch of promises, that's all it is. A mortgage, a wedding vow, a promise to obey the law, a pledge to enforce it. And now the world is falling apart, the whole rickety world, and every broken promise is a small rock tossed at the wooden side of its tumbling form.”

I think I liked this story better than the first. Henry is growing on me with his simple dedication and decency. I am also enjoying the development of this world of the end of days and the question of what would a person do in the face of utter meaninglessness. Winters pens some nice thoughts:

““You are a married man,” I say. I'm pressing my luck. He stares back at me in silence, impassive as a mountainside. “Your wife is confused. You've left her terrified and alone. You can't just abandon your promises because the world is over.”

And then there is this:

“Where's Brett, Henry?” says poor Martha, and I just tell her, I say, “He's dead,” and she collapses to the ground on her knees, buries her face in her hands and wails, one long keening senseless syllable. That's the end of the world right there for Martha Milano.”

The end of the world comes for all of us, just a bit differently for each of us.

Short review: I didn't like this as much as the first book. This shifted from being a mystery book with an apocalyptic setting to being a full blown apocalyptic books with a mystery subtext. It is not bad, but the character is annoying. The other characters start asking, ‘why are you doing this all the time' until the character starts asking. And the reader has no idea why the guy is doing this.

I also think I am a bit tired of the genre right now. So I may be being a bit hard on it.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/countdown-city/

It's an existential detective novel if that's your thing. When an extinction sized asteroid is 77 days away from striking earth, potentially ending all life, what's the point in putting on a suit and taking on a missing person's case? Protagonist Hank Palace isn't even a cop anymore and with the Earth ending - many have gone “bucket list” chasing end of the world thrills, or their own oblivion into drugs and debauchery. So when an ex state-trooper, now pizza restauranteur and devoted husband disappears why would it be any different than the hordes of others leaving their lives before life leaves them?

Countdown City is the second in the proposed Last Policeman trilogy from the author of “Android Karenina” and “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters”. The whole felt a little too “convenient” - but maybe it suffers for my having skipped the first in the series. The sophomore slump wherein we flesh out the cast of characters and bridge the introduction of the world ending conceit in the first book with the final resolution in the third.