Sunday, August 5, 2012

The Last Policeman by Ben Winters

Was it suicide or was it murder?  Does anyone even care?

Quirk Books sent me a copy of this book for review (thank you).  It was published on July 10th.

Detective Hank Palace is still doing his job and he cares about this man's death.  The problem is that there is an asteroid headed towards earth and so many folks have committed suicide it's hard to find any confidence in that premise.

This is the story of a society falling apart at the seams.  Even the police are prone to suddenly quit their jobs and move somewhere warmer, somewhere they had dreamed about in the past.  If it's all going to be over soon, why bother?

When Hank is talking to another detective and that detective throws himself in front of a bus, it shows just how desperate everyone is getting.

While Hank continues his investigation what the author really shows is the psychological effect of knowing an asteroid will hit earth in six months.  Some give up, some fight, some lose their minds, and others hope the calculations are wrong.  Which batch would you be in?  Would you walk away from your job and move to Hawaii?  Climb Mt. Everest?  Or jump out of a plane with no parachute?

I found this a thought provoking book.  Why not give it a read yourself and see what you think?

Happy reading.

1 comment:

Shan said...

157This book certainly sounds like it makes you question yourself, and then wonder IF it really happened how would we react.
Kind of makes me wonder about those whom are so sure that the world will end in Dec. 2012....remember we went through this moving from 1999 to 2000.
People will often say you have no idea how you will react until you are in that situation, which to some extent is true but I believe in making the most of each day.

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