The Last Policeman

Another unusual premise. An asteroid has been spotted on a collision course with Earth, and civilization appears doomed, yet our hero remains set on solving his current case, a death originally dismissed as suicide, which is, in fact, a murder.

Surprisingly, the two themes are made to sit well together, and the intent to solve the crime never seems inappropriate in dire circumstances. This is a real page-turner, which I loved.

I loved the thought of the world ending while a cop decides to spend his final hours solving a mystery. The plot kept me hooked from the get-go, and I enjoyed the contrast of society falling apart around the protagonist while he doggedly pursues the murderer.

The sense of frustration and isolation made this a page-turner.

The Last Policeman taught me that dystopian novels can be mashed up with genres that might seem far from sci-fi. Here, Ben H. Winters expertly writes crime fiction about a detective trying to solve a murder, only he has to do it before an asteroid strikes Earth and makes the whole endeavor pretty dang pointless! The novel and its two sequels show how people might respond when confronted with imminent demise. Spoiler alert: Not that well, generally.

If you’re already familiar with it, this novel may seem like a weird fit amongst the rest of the books on this list. Yet, though it is a sci-fi mystery with a strong sense of chaotic inevitability felt throughout, the protagonist’s self-deprecating humor in the midst of the world’s collapse compels me to include The Last Policeman. Winters’ psychological exploration of people who believe themselves to be doomed is explored in a well-rounded fashion, highlighted by a policeman who perpetually questions the point of his own efforts. A fun, compelling sci-fi mystery with a deeply compassionate hero.

A science fiction mystery that asks “what if” we knew the apocalypse was coming—in this case because for six months before the impact we knew an asteroid was going to hit the Earth. You might expect—and you’d probably be right—that society would fall apart when everyone expects to die. You might hope that farmers might stay in their fields to feed us in our last days. But, what if one of the few people who stay on the job is a policeman trying to solve a murder?