The Last Policeman

Ben Winter's end-of-the-world police procedural is fascinating on two levels. Recently promoted Detective Hank Palace is a thoughtful and dogged police officer in spite of the “unbearable immanence” of an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. In spite of everything falling apart around him, he worries about the victim, his sister, and his colleagues, but gets the job done. Meanwhile, I couldn't help thinking how I would deal with this scenario the entire time I was reading the novel. There aren't too many books that entertain and make you think. This is one of them. Highly recommended.

I'm not a big reader of mysteries, which seem to me to be pretty much the same: Somebody is killed, but whodunit? That storyline is here, of course, but with the added premise that an asteroid is hurtling toward earth and so who cares about solving a murder case? Especially a murder case that looks like it is probably a suicide, just one more suicide among an epidemic of them. So in that regard, this was a refreshing and entertaining read. (Also, I listened to the audio version and the performance was good.)

Wow! Great story. A detective investigates a suspicious suicide in a deteriorating world. An asteroid is hitting earth in a few months and nearly everyone has recalibrated their behavior accordingly. Bucket lists, suicides, criminal behavior, a lot of people aren't holding down the jobs that made society run anymore. But if you're a criminal who gets caught, even six months is a life sentence. A great police procedural in a world with a new set of rules.

I've been on a Ben H. Winters journey lately ("Underground Airlines" and "Golden State") I'm re-reading this trilogy to keep with the journey, but more significantly - to explore a story world where doom is on the horizon and the fundamental question all the characters must ask is "So, then how should we live?" The Nov 5th U.S. election isnt literally an asteroid rushing to hit earth. Yet it is a date when another time will begin - and one I'm not feeling hopeful about its arrival. For me, the plots in this trilogy are secondary to the first-person main character and how he chooses to, even as the police force is crumbling around him, continues to pursue the solution of a suspicious suicide. There's suspense, a few twists, a handful of endearing characters, but for me the book and series are a way to ask myself "How would I live in the story world of coming, existential calamity?" And far more essentially: "How will I choose to live in the just over three months until Nov 5th and its yet unknown aftermath?"

Short Review: The setting is great. The world is going to end in six months when an asteroid is going to hit the earth. But Dec Palace has a murder to solve. The concept was better than the execution but it was good enough to read the second book.

my full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/last-policeman/

I wanted to like this book, I really did. It was not meant to be. I could not get the past that I did not like Hank Palace, and because I did not like him I could not get behind his cause (to continue to solve crimes in a world where humans know an asteroid will hit in a few months and we will all die). I probably could have overlooked not liking Palace if I cared about the case. I did not. There was nothing to drive Palace into this obsession to solve the murder except to say he solved a case. Honestly, maybe it was my mood, but considering it took me two weeks to read it that's probably a stretch. Also, the sister. I didn't get Nico at all.