The Last Policeman

Paperback, 336 pages

Published May 13, 2013 by Quirk Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-59474-674-1

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 …

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?

3 editions

Phil in SF reviewed The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters (The Last Policeman, #1)

Top crime/sf crossover

5 stars

On the SF side, this is a story of people who know that Earth has only months left (an asteroid is on a collision course with the planet). What do you do? Go bucket list? Throw yourself in front of a bus? Carry on as if little has changed? The societal changes are perhaps less unique in SF, but this is still excellently done. It's not a complete collapse, but a lot of changes (rationing, corporate collapse) matter. There's cults and cabals and ... it's all great!

On the crime novel side, the apparent suicide that kicks off the novel is the kind of simple case that cops actually deal with, not the complicated serial killings of a Jo Nesbø novel or many people have motives Knives Out movie. The bad guys are not mustache-twirlers. The newly promoted detective actually investigates, somewhat amateurishly due to his lack of experience, …

On the SF side, this is a story of people who know that Earth has only months left (an asteroid is on a collision course with the planet). What do you do? Go bucket list? Throw yourself in front of a bus? Carry on as if little has changed? The societal changes are perhaps less unique in SF, but this is still excellently done. It's not a complete collapse, but a lot of changes (rationing, corporate collapse) matter. There's cults and cabals and ... it's all great!

On the crime novel side, the apparent suicide that kicks off the novel is the kind of simple case that cops actually deal with, not the complicated serial killings of a Jo Nesbø novel or many people have motives Knives Out movie. The bad guys are not mustache-twirlers. The newly promoted detective actually investigates, somewhat amateurishly due to his lack of experience, but still investigation. It ticks all the boxes of what I like in a crime story.

I'm old and tired these days. It takes a very engaging book for me to stay up past my bedtime. With 20% left, I decided I had to finish last night. I couldn't put it off until after work today.

dare reviewed The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters

Review of 'The Last Policeman: A Novel' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book gave me nightmares, a first in fifteen years or so. The Last Policeman is essentially a bleak and relentless story about waiting for the end of the world. It's essentially asking "what's the point" and not pretending to provide any easy answers. When total destruction looms in a few months, and there's nothing you can do to affect any of it, no sane hope that it will be miraculously averted, what does one crime matter? What does anything matter?

If the novel was about existential navel-gazing. it would be unreadable. With a proactive and symphatetic protagonist who wants to survive despite everything, and who still wants to act like a human being, Last Policeman is chilling in its believability. It got under my skin in a way I hardly thought possible. I have no idea if the book was really that good or it was just me.