{4.5/5}

CW: cruelty to animals, references to suicide/rape/child abuse, some gore, some others.

Read via NetGalley. “The Last Murder at the End of the World” is available now.

I don’t really know how you classify this sort of book, but at a guess I’d call it a locked room dystopian sci-fi murder mystery. It’s weird, it’s unique, and you’re either going to love it or hate it.

90 years ago, a great fog began rolling over the earth, killing every living thing in its path. A call went out, summoning all who could get there to a tiny island where they would be safe from the fog. Now, the last remnants of humanity live on this island. The villagers go about their daily routine, happy and content and safe. Until, one day, a murder occurs. The fog begins closing in, everyone’s memory of the night before has been wiped, and the race is on to solve the mystery and save humanity.

Full disclosure—if I hadn’t read (and loved) “The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” first, I would have been incredibly confused by this book, and I don’t know if I would have liked it as much. I did, however, read the aforementioned book, so I was at least a little bit prepared for this one to be…unusual. Which it was, but it was also a lot of fun.

Let me start by saying that this book is absolutely not one you can read while only paying half attention. It’s not a bedtime, almost-asleep, partial context will do sort of thing. This is what I affectionately have termed a “thinky” sort of book. A “whole brain” book. In case it isn’t clear—you’re going to have to pay attention or, if you’re anything like me, you’ll get horribly lost somewhere in the middle and have to read the whole page over again. Sometimes twice. That being said, it’s an incredibly enjoyable adventure, and I found that I didn’t mind reading some things twice because I got to see even more information on the second go, which was very fun. The author is genius at weaving complex, detailed stories that all come together in such a way that you never saw it coming, but you probably could have if you’d been just a little smarter (it doesn’t matter how smart you are; you’re going to have missed at least 30% of the important bits because you didn’t know yet that they were important).

The thing I probably loved the most about this particular story is the delivery. We’re watching things unfold from the perspective of a narrator who is somehow both involved in and outside of the actual events. Better yet, that narration consists of a lot of twisted, morbid, eery statements delivered in a dry, matter of fact tone that’s so disconcerting as to be amusing. Using that narration, we also get to see enough of the setting, in vibrant and solid detail, to know what the setting looks and feels like to our characters without the action being upstaged by the world building. It’s the perfect balance of information, and it makes it that much easier to sink into the story as it unfolds.

This is the sort of book that sinks its teeth into you and won’t let go until you have all the answers. It was a little slow to kick off, and yet I couldn’t put it down. The whole thing is just one riveting occurrence after another, all snowballing up to a frantic, deliciously complex, “I’m so stressed about this I couldn’t possibly stop reading even if you pried this book out of my hands,” remarkably satisfactory ending. And if that wasn’t enough, scattered throughout the story are some of the most beautiful, understated, brain-altering turns of phrase that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. This man makes excellence look easy, and if he ever decides to stop writing and try to conquer the world, we’re in trouble.

Obviously, I loved this book. I did find it a little slower to get into than “7 ½ Deaths,” but I think that’s mostly to do with the background of this one being much more ‘dystopian fiction,’ which is a little out of my usual wheelhouse. At the end of the day, though, this is a locked room mystery with all the intrigue and moving parts that I so love in that sort of thing. Despite the obvious time differences, the book gives off the same sort of vibe as Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None,” and I can’t think of a higher compliment than a comparison to the queen of mysteries herself. The story makes a lot of statements— about humanity, about nature, even about those things that are given value and weight. I’ll be honest, it was a hard read at times; those statements were brutal, and they weren’t always flattering. But if you can get past how incredibly oddly specific the setting is, those statements are housed in one of the most enjoyable murder mysteries I’ve ever read.

The Last Murder at the End of the World - Likewise Book Reviews

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