The Last Murder at the End of the World---spoilers, spoilers spoilers

 The Last Murder at the End of the World (2024) by Stuart Turton

Emory, her family, and about 130 others live an idyllic life in an island village at the end of the world. The villagers are happy to fish and farm, celebrate births and deaths together, go to bed precisely at curfew, and obey the elders in everything. The elders are a trio of scientists who saved the last remnants of humanity when it looked like mankind was doomed to extinction. The elders always know what is best.

Beyond the forcefield surrounding the island, there is nothing: the world has been destroyed by a fog containing insects that kill every living thing they touch. But the scientists know precisely how to keep the fog at bay and there is no danger...until one morning the villagers wake up to find their food stores gone, fields poisoned, and Niema Mandripilias, the scientist that seemed to care most deeply for them and who taught their school, has been stabbed to death in what was meant to look like an accident. Oh...and Niema's death has triggered a dead man's switch that has lowered the field around the island. The fog is headed their way

Emory has always been different from the other villagers. She has been full of questions from the time she was born. Questions that never seem to have answers. Emory is the one who points out that the fallen beam that appears to have crushed Niema's head wasn't the weapon. Emory points out the wound in Niema's chest. Emory wants to know why objects in the village have been moved during the night; why Hui's violin has been smashed and why Hui is missing. There are so many things that don't seem to fit.

Abi, the name for the omniscient voice that speaks (telepathically?) to every villager, tells the elders that the villagers have 170 hours to solve Niema's murder--find the culprit and make sure the culprit is executed. If that happens, the force field will be reinstated. If not...humanity dies. Abi also convinces the elders that Emory is the best suited to investigate. Abi has every reason to want the villagers to succeed--their primary mission is to obey every order from Niema and to protect humanity and ensure survival. But, Emory wonders, if that's true why would Niema have ordered the field lowered? There are so many questions that she will have to answer even before she answers the most important one: who killed Niema and why?

***************Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers! Can't talk about this one without Spoilers!

So...I don't know how I feel about this one. I've given it three stars as a placeholder rating on Goodreads, but I'm not sure where I'm going to land. I absolutely loved Turton's debut book The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and his second novel The Devil & the Dark Water was almost as good. Both were gripping and kept me reading even if there were some portions that were disappointing. I guess you could say the same of The Last Murder at the end of the World, but... And there it is. Everything I can think of to say about the book that is positive comes with a "but..." 

The set-up is a really interesting and unusual one. An apocalyptic science fiction thriller. But. There is something that just doesn't fit for me. Obviously every piece of fiction is a construct and is made just the way the author wants in order to tell their story. But...portions of the set-up seem forced. The characters are interesting. I very much appreciated Emory's difficulties in fitting in and I enjoyed watching her work her way through the relationships with her father and daughter--relationships that have never been exactly what she would have liked. But...the initial antagonism between Emory and her father seemed very over-blown based on the information we're given. It isn't until the very end that we learn her father's backstory which explains it. So, everything about his reactions to Emory's questions and investigations seems off-kilter. [I mean everyone should want her to succeed...otherwise they're all gonna die.] And then there's the mystery...the investigation of the murder was great. I thought Emory did a terrific job given the time constraint she was operating under. But...that solution? Seemed like a cop-out to me. Very unsatisfying. Murders that wind up being suicide just don't do a whole lot for me. I would have preferred it if (as I suspected) Abi was the killer. I guess in a way Abi was...since they influenced everything that Niema did. But I actually would have been happier (as a mystery fan) if there had been an actual murderer that had been caught. 

I did enjoy the apocalyptic storyline--even though portions felt forced. I do wonder if Turton has read Doyle's The Poison Belt or M. P. Shiel's The Purple Cloud. Both involve dangerous "clouds" of a sort which destroy all or most of humanity and a brave band of survivors trying to make their way in the post-apocalyptic world. I'm not entirely sure I understand the cloud of insects in Turton's work. Is there really a cloud--or does the huge swarm of insects just look like a cloud approaching (like Emory I'm full of questions)? 

I think I'm going to stick with my ★★★ rating.

First line: "Is there no other way? asks a horrified Niema Mandripilias, speaking out loud in an empty room.

Last lines: "At the start," she says, crying happily. "You've arrived just in time."
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Deaths = 9 (one drowned; two natural; one hit on head; three stabbed; one poisoned; one destroyed by insects)