"I'm staring at the insurance man and he's staring at me, two cold gray eyes behind old-fashioned tortoiseshell frames, and I'm having this awful and inspiring feeling, like holy moly this is real, and I don't know if I'm ready, I really don't."
Review: An asteroid is headed to Earth and no one can stop it. Oh, there are plans from just about every country and government, but it is impossible. You'd think with the end coming, slowly, but quickly, all at once, solving a murder would be the LAST thing on ANYONE'S mind? Think again, because Detective Hank Palace doesn't just stop doing his job because there are bigger destinies at play. There's been a string of deaths where his co-workers see suicides at an all time high, maybe because they're scared of the impending doom so they are projecting what they cannot do themselves on the dead they encounter? Regardless of the circumstances Detective Palace does not believe these deaths are suicide. He believes they are being murdered and their deaths are staged to appear like suicide.
I found, as I was reading this book that the dialog as well as the first person narrative reads best out loud. I'd start reading it silently in my head, but then I found myself starting to say the sentences out loud because it sounds almost like a comic strip. A detective comic strip. Filled with the innermost thoughts of a detective torn between the people he loves around him and the work he feels he must do.
In short, this whole, end of the world thing is something the United States government did anticipate. It is rumored, and believed, by many, that the government has put in place a plan to remove certain high ranking and intelligent people off planet Earth and relocate them to the moon, if ever a disaster should occur where that was the only solution. Sounds crazy? Well it does to Detective Hank Palace who just will not believe that it's possible. He believes, and I would be inclined to agree, that it sounds like some freakish Twilight Zone episode. Live on the moon? Seriously?
If you like classic Noir detective stories, but with a post apocalyptic feel to it, then you'll love this book. Winters is able to seamlessly mix mystery, impossibility, suspense, romance, and doubt into this first book of a trilogy. It started off slow by by the middle I just could not put it down. It's not cheesy at all like I thought it might be and I actually found myself understanding Detective Hank Palace. Just because the world is ending doesn't mean he should stop doing his job, or care less about it. So while he's not exactly the last policeman, he is the only one willing to solve the murders, even if it means uncovering a truth he refuses to believe.
By the end I found myself wondering, what would I do if I knew the exact date and time the world would end? Would I still live my life as I am now, or would I throw caution to the wind and behave recklessly? Am I Detective Hank Palace or his sister Nico? If I admit the truth to myself I'm probably Nico. Read the book and tell me who you relate to most?
Synopsis: Winner of the 2013 Edgar® Award Winner for Best Paperback Original!
What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?
Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.
The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.
The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?
The Last Policeman #1 (Trilogy)
by Ben H. Winters
318 pages
Quirk Books, 2013
Fiction
Finished in 5 days
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