Book Review: The Last Policeman by: Ben Winters

Goodreads Summary: 




What's the point of solving murders if we're all going to die soon, anyway? 

Hank Palace, a homicide detective in Concord, New Hampshire, asks this question every day. 

Most people have stopped doing whatever it is they did before the asteroid 2011L47J hovered into view. Stopped selling real estate; stopped working at hospitals; stopped slinging hash or driving cabs or trading high-yield securities. A lot of folks spend their days on bended knee, praying to Jesus or Allah or whoever they think might save them. Others have gone the other way, roaming the streets, enjoying what pleasures they can before the grand finale. Government services are beginning to slip into disarray, crops are left to rot. 

When it first appeared, 2011L47J was just a speck, somewhere beyond Jupiter's orbit. By mid-October it revealed itself to be seven kilometers in diameter, and on a crash course with the Earth. Now it's March, and sometime in September, 2011L47J will slam into our planet and kill half the population immediately, and most of the rest in the miserable decades that follow.

All of humanity now, every person in the world--we're like a bunch of little kids, in deep, deep trouble, just waiting till our dad gets home. So what do I do while I wait? I work. 

Today, Hank Palace is working the case of Peter Zell, an insurance man who has comitted suicide. To his fellow police officers, it's just one more death-by-hanging in a city that sees a dozen of suicides every week. But Palace senses something wrong. There's something odd about the crime scene. Something off. Palace becomes convinced that it's murder. And he's the only one who cares.

What's the difference, Palace? We're all gonna die soon, anyway.

As Palace digs deeper, we are drawn into his world. We meet his sister Nico and her screwup boyfriend, Derek, who are trying to beam S.O.S messages into outer space; we meet Erik Littlejohn, a "spiritual advisor" helping his clients through these difficult times. Palace's investigation plays out under the long shadow of 2011L47J, forcing everyone in the book -- and those reading it-- to confront hard questions way beyond "whodunnit." 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?




My Review: 

ReadingNook Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Hank Palace is not amoungst the norm when he finds out the world is going to end due to an asteriod hitting earth within the next six months. The norm all abandon their jobs and spend what time they have left with their families and living out their dreams. Hank is a police officer and although the world is ending, the crime has not stopped, and he refuses to abandon his job of protecting his community. In fact, he's consumed with solving a murder, that is being said to be a suicide, but Hank believes otherwise, he believes it was cold-blooded murder.

I loved Bedbugs by Ben Winters, and in fact it was one of my favorite books of last year, so that being said I had extremely high expectations of this book going into it, and I think because I built it up so much it fell a bit flat for me. I was really hoping the end of the world/post-apoctolyptic aspect was going to be the main focus, but instead I felt like it was more about Hank solving the mystery behind the suicide/murder.

That being said, I'm still a huge fan of Ben Winters writing, his writing style is phenomenal, and although this book wasn't really my cup of tea, I know for the right reader this could be a five-star book. His writing draws you in, and for those that like true-crime/mystery novels, I think you would love this book.