It’s science fiction! It’s crime fiction! It’s a…sci-cri! The Last Policeman is the latest thrilling novel by New York Times best-selling author Ben H. Winters and you can watch the trailer for the book here below.
Henry Palace has just made detective after a brief career as a patrolman with the Concord Police Department. He’s one of many officers who’ve been bumped up the chain of command as the higher-ranking leave their posts in droves. What’s driving their accelerated career paths is a giant asteroid 2011GV1 named Maia and it’s on a confirmed trajectory.
By now everyone knows Maia has a 100 percent chance of slamming into Earth. No matter where it lands, the fallout will cause massive worldwide devastation. With Doomsday only six months away, many people decide to check every item off their bucket list; some turn to drugs, some to religion, while many others are committing suicide.
Detective Palace is called to the scene of one such apparent suicide; a “hanger,” as they’ve been dubbed by the Concord police. But something’s not quite right about this suicide and Detective Palace is determined to solve the mystery of who really killed the quiet insurance man. With mere months left for the whole world, what’s the point in solving any crimes, let alone a suspicious suicide?
Winters poses this question to us constantly throughout the book, as Detective Palace keeps answering it for himself. He’s not the only one who keeps doing his job even though the apocalypse is most definitely coming. We wants Palace to succeed anyway because even in the absence of hope, humanity stubbornly trudges on. So long as there’s still one beating heart, life continues today no matter what little promise of tomorrow there is.
The Last Policeman is the first in a planned pre-apocalyptic trilogy. Winters’ next book in the series, Disasterland: The Last Policeman II, slated for release in July 2013, will take us three months closer to the end of the world. He is also the author of two classic novel mash-ups – Android Karenina, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters – and the uber-paranoid psychological thriller Bedbugs, which had your Book Slave itching for days.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
