Ambitious dystopian fiction with a complex mystery plot keeps the reader hooked.

At some point in the future, there's an island at the end of the world. Surrounding the land inhabited by 122 villagers and 3 scientists is a thick fog containing insects that destroyed everything within its path and the entire rest of the planet. Daily life on the island is simple and peaceful as the villagers work and sleep, performing any tasks delegated to them by the scientists whose leader is Neima. Every night they go to sleep promptly at curfew and exist only to provide service and self-sacrifice for their community.

Suddenly things fall apart when one of the scientists is found dead and their murder has caused the barrier holding back the fog to fail. Now on a tight deadline to solve the murder and prevent the fog from killing them all, a brave villager, Emory, who has always questioned everything about life on the island, is delegated to solve the mystery and prevent extinction of the inhabitants. The investigation is hampered by the fact that the security failsafe on the island has done a memory wipe and no one there can remember what they were doing the night before.

Even as the clock ticks and everyone seems to be running amok all over the island trying to figure out who did what to whom, the reader knows that somehow this is all going to be OK because otherwise this would be a really terrible story. The protagonist, Emory, is as courageous as expected and exhibits all the necessary smarts and talent to figure things out of course. So, in essence, this is a common enough plot with archetypes except that Emory and the villagers are different in a fundamental way to most heroes.

The reason this novel resonated with me is that it was quite a puzzle full of interesting twists and turns that kept me guessing. The island was full of technology that made the place and the events unique. The writing was excellent even though the big picture was quite complicated, and I had to reread some of it just to make sure I was following. The setting and the description of the island layout and buildings, etc. also made for a great backdrop to the story line. I kept thinking this would make a great movie.

I listened to the audiobook while also reading along with the e-book ARC provided by the publishers. I did not care for the narrator -- mostly because it was a male voice, and the main characters were primarily female and so it seemed totally out of place for the story. Plus, all the voices of the women sounded the same and done badly. I would think it wouldn't be that hard to get both a male and female narrator for an audio version of a book that would enhance the listening experience. I'm sort of new to the audiobook but I am finding more and more that the lack of dual (or more) voices creates an irritant. I finally put the audio aside and finished without it.

I wasn't sure if I would like this or not, but I totally did. I am looking forward to hearing what others think of it. ( )

When you get to the acknowledgements at the end of this book, you get a sense that this was not an easy story to write and things did not go well during the process and I have to say, that this book is not a patch on his previous books.

Set in the future where a black fog has swallowed up the whole of the world, trapping a few people on an island where it is held back by one person. Life on this island is happy, carefree and everything is in the service of the elders who oversee all, along with Abi a voice that is heard in everyone's head. Plenty of scope here for things to go wrong. And they do.

The book is an attempt, I think, at exploring what we mean by free will and so everyone on the island does not have the luxury of free will, it's just that they also don't know it. It only takes one person to start questioning and then the walls start to crumble. At the heart is the desire for money and how it distorts actions. Step out of line and you are banished or killed (are we talking about Russia here?).

Part of the problem with the book is that I really didn't have a full grasp of what was going on in the first third and then nothing really happened until the last few pages. There were no thoughts as to why some of the characters were free to think but the majority weren't and it wasn't really clear why other people were entombed.

I enjoyed the short chapters - I like a book to roll along but not even the looming deadline for extinction really injected any pace or excitement into the plot. The story flat-lined. ( )

One of my most anticipated reads of the year! This is the latest whodunit by Stuart Turton, and I feel like people who liked his previous books will like this one, and those who didn't probably won't. It's a whodunit with speculative elements, and that's been what I've been enjoying most about Turton, the fact that he plays with the mystery genre. This time we're transported into an apocalyptic world far in the future where the last humans alive live on an island surrounded by deadly fog. The only thing keeping them alive is a defense system. Then one of the scientists in control of this system is killed, and the remaining people need to solve this murder or else the defenses will go down in just a few days..

I enjoy Turton's writing, the characters, the pacing, and the twisty narrative. I was kept on the edge of my seat and was constantly wanting to know how things would play out.

*Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers, and the author for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.*

I really wanted to read this book for three big reasons:

* I’d read The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by this author and loved it.
* The GORGEOUS cover.
* The blurb reminded me of a return to traditional dystopia.

The Last Murder at the End of the World takes place in a world where most of the planet has been destroyed by a poisonous fog. The last safe haven is a little island where one hundred twenty-two villagers and three scientists live in harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm, and do as they’re told — including treating the scientists, or “elders,” with the utmost reverence. And then one of the scientists turns up dead, and the shield protecting their island from the fog goes down. It’s up to Emory — one of the more curious villagers, to figure out what happened. There’s one big problem: everyone’s memories have been erased.

I do think there’s a bit of a learning curve with the world-building and the sheer amount of characters. I myself had to reread the beginning chapters a few times just to remember the names.

Once the plot really gets into the thick of it, however, it became very interesting. This is probably what I would call a “slow burn mystery.” The pieces are carefully laid out and slowly revealed as Emory herself discovers more clues and uncovers the truth about the world.

I think the book was at its strongest when we were following Emory, who was made the most interesting by her imperfection and lack of knowledge. I actually wish we followed her more instead of the other characters, like Abi, the island’s resident artificial intelligence. While it’s a really interesting idea and I understand how Emory’s perspective might’ve read too much like a typical, cliché dystopia, I felt like everyone else’s narration was just a little too robotic and monotonous, whereas Emory’s was refreshingly full of life and chaos.

Overall, I feel like this was objectively well-written and thought out, but I never felt completely emotionally invested in any characters other than Emory. I’d still highly recommend this to readers of science fiction and speculative fiction, since there’s a lot we can discuss about human nature as we read this book. And I’d love to see this world adapted to film.

The Last Murder at the End of the World comes out March 28, 2024. ( )

Another one of those books where the title pulls me in. But I do love a post-apocalyptic story that has some mystery to it. I didn’t expect the sci-fi part of it but that’s okay. So, a fog spreads throughout the world and insects inside the fog devour anything and anyone. On a Greek island, where there was once a research facility, they keep the fog at bay and have survived numerous decades. Then one of the elders is murdered which leads a chain of events that turns off the mechanism that stops the fog from approaching the island. The inhabitants have a few days to find the murder which would turn it back on and save the island.

That said, it was an okay story. I was a little consumed at first. Too many characters to keep track off and so much going on, sometimes it was hard to follow. But that’s just me, I am not much of a science fiction fan but overall it was okay. ( )