The Last Murder at the End of the World

I'm starting to really like these ship-in-a-bottle mysteries that Turton pops out. I really enjoyed The Devil and the Dark Water (aside from some thematic quibbles near the end of the book), and this was (kind of) more of the same, just with an island instead of a ship. Island-in-a-bottle just doesn't sound as good though.

We have a small colony of people, marooned on an island and unable to leave due to a mysterious fog that's swept the world and killed everyone else on it. This island was the last refuge for scientists, who constructed a barrier that managed to keep the fog at bay and the people safe, but the lab that housed most of their technology and kept most of the people asleep in suspended animation had to be sealed up. Time passed. Survivors rebuilt their society as best they could. The three surviving scientists, enhanced to live long lives, shepherd their small colony of 122 villagers through their lives and their little society coexists together in a fragile balance of just enough villagers for just enough food. There's enough little oddities told about this village to keep you reading and make you wonder at what's actually beneath this little idyllic existence -- and then one of the scientists, beloved and revered, turns up dead. Suddenly there's a clock ticking where the murder must be solved before everyone is killed.

I really mostly enjoyed this book! There's enough strange things going on that's hinted at or glossed over by the POV characters as being something that just is to keep me wondering what actually was going on here. In fact, if the whole book was told with this as the framework, I'd probably be looking at a 5-star review here. My hangup is when things turn into murder investigation mode, because everything starts feeling a bit disconnected and frantic. The "detective" (in quotes, because she's not actually a detective with training) seems like she bounces from random location to random location in rapid succession with no real idea what she's doing. (ending spoilers here) Despite this, she manages to stumble on enough of the clues to lead her to a conclusion that was far-fetched at best. I certainly had a hard time following her train of thought, despite already arriving at the 'these people aren't people' conclusion before we got there. It feels like a book that begs for a re-read to really understand the ending.

Still, really interesting thoughts here, spun in a way that kept me reading to see how things wound up. I can't say I necessarily agree with the motive and the ending, but the journey was fun enough for me.