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. ( )

"The Last Murder at the End of the World" is a fascinating post-apocalyptic murder mystery. It's also though-provoking, incredibly well-plotted, and entirely unique.

The murder in question occurs in an unusual version of the "locked room" scenario...the last survivors of a deadly-fog-apocalypse are living on an isolated island, so the suspect pool is obviously limited. To make things more challenging for the investigator (Emory), everyone's memories of the night of the crime have been wiped, including her own. Just in case the stakes weren't high enough...if Emory can't solve the murder and make sure the killer is executed in just under two days, the fog will cover the island, killing everyone, and thereby ending human life on earth.

Within those parameters, Emory begins her investigation. Unlike most of the island's inhabitants, she's curious and willing to ask hard questions. However, given that LITERALLY nobody is able to remember anything, she has her work cut out for her. As she progresses through whatever leads she can find, she raises as may new questions as she answers, all in a high-stakes race against the clock.

Author Stuart Turton skillfully weaves character backstories and glimpses of the onset of the apocalypse with Emory's investigation so that the reader fills in their own blanks about the past at the same time as Emory's blanks in her memory and what actually happened. There's a lot to uncover and figure out, and not everyone (or everything) is as it appears. To avoid spoilers, I won't say more, but PLEASE read this one for some surprising revelations!

You'll leave this story with a complete understanding of what actually happened on the night in question. However, you'll also leave with a lot of things to think about. I wish I could share a few of them here but.....the questions themselves would be spoiler-ish. (If you're planning to read this one, which I highly recommend, try to go in without reading any more about it. You'll enjoy it much more if you have less of an idea what to expect.)

5 slices of perfect Provolone! (Also a nominee for my Top 10 books of 2024!) ( )

The last remnants of humanity -- after several generations, only 125 strong -- live a peaceful existence on a small island that makes up the only land protected from the deadly, insect-filled fog that coated the planet and devoured the rest of humanity. Life is tranquil and idyllic for most of the inhabitants until they awake to find one of the three revered elders, Niema, and several other villagers dead and the fog rolling in. The A.I. overseer, Abi, explains that Niema's death triggered the barriers holding back the fog to drop and they can only be brought up again if Niema's murderer is found and brought to justice. The investigation is complicated as everybody's memories of the night the murder took place have been erased.
It becomes increasingly clear that the mystery runs deeper than the question of who killed Niema and the villagers' society grows more ominous and dystopian the more is revealed.

Abi served as the first-person narrator, but her perspective took a backseat as she focused the narration on the thoughts and feelings of the villagers whose minds she could read. This created a level of distance from all the characters -- from Abi because she is purposefully hiding information and relegating herself to a background element and from the villagers because we aren't fully in their heads, it's filtered through an outside view.
Of the many characters and relationships, we get to see I was most interested in the three elders and what their problems were. Niema, herself, has the air of a cult leader, while the other two benefit from her manipulation of the villagers but hardly participate, keeping to the edges of their society. Emory, an unusually inquisitive villager who takes on the investigation, and her family had more ordinary dysfunctions, that were nonetheless compelling. ( )