Locked room mystery? Post apocalyptic shenanigans? Neither? Well…

Post apocalyptic stories tend to stress me out. I like order, and I like rules. Most of them, anyway. When the world ends, none of those things seem to matter anymore. Twenty people, trapped in a hotel in the middle of nowhere in Switzerland try their best to maintain some sense of normalcy, even after they discover a dead girl in one of the water tanks on the roof. Jon Keller, our narrator decides to pass the time playing amateur investigator, while the rest of the people worry about things like food and trying not the freeze their asses off.

The book is written in the form of Jon’s accounts of the events. He’s keen to tell anyone who’d listen that this is not a diary. It shows. Our historian tries to be as accurate as possible, and as a result comes across as objective, and somehow removed from the subject. Later on he cracks, and actually includes some of his feelings and opinions, but by the time I got to this point I was on the verge of boredom.

While all this sitting around, swapping stories, engaging in philosophical arguments and just generally trying to establish some kind of new normal in a situation like this make sense, it doesn’t mean I want to read about it in such detail. I wanted an exciting murder investigation, craved some action, some thrill! I don’t need zombies to spice up a post apocalyptic story, but I also haven’t really felt a sense of real danger. There were plenty of occasions where the situation could have turned dire, but somehow I always had this feeling that they will be fine. They even forgot about the murder for a while to recount weird stories for Jon’s non-diary, and I was there thinking “Are you guys even trying here?“.

Meh.

A mildly entertaining story, set in a post apocalyptic world of which we barely feel anything at all, The Last is a possibly accurate account of how most people would actually behave should the world ever end. Well, let me tell you, the fun factor of such event is vastly overrated.

This end of the world mystery thriller has a lot going for it and is a very engaging opus on the apocalypse. It is thought provoking story telling that deals with a device that sometimes misses some key points but encouragingly keeps away from the devastation tropes that normally befalls this type of genre.

The Last is a book that throws you into the situation quick and fast and keeps the power going to the very end. With very little ebbs in pacing, this is quite the achievement as it would be very easy to run off course. The overall narrative is pretty tight though there is some political messages found that would pretty much fit in with the liberalism ideals that unfortunately will date this novel in a couple of years. It would probably have been best that if you are going to address this issue, it may have been wiser to address both sides of the fence and show the areas of grey. The novel pretty much point that the nuclear war bomb first detonated over Washington was due to one man and that he pretty much deserved it which it would be more complex than this. It also shows Europeans to be very liberal in their ideals and this is also not the case. This is pretty much the only criticism that I have from a book that is pretty much flawless. (For the record, I am a middle of the road politically and do not stray to far left nor right.)

The characters are very tightly written and told from the first person perspective; we are taking down the road through the eyes of Jon. He is a hard nut to crack and although we are supposed to find him very likable, he did have some outward annoying traits. This works exceedingly well and because of the first person narrative, we are stuck in his head which rounds him off with his good points and bad characteristics coming to the fore. He is not the nicest person but I think it is the perfect person to go on this adventure with.

The supporting characters are very strongly represented and we do have some interesting characters to get involved with. At times, we really do not know much about their perspective due to Jon being stuck in his own Waterloo but they do become strong. The most interesting character is Tomi and it would have been interesting to see things through her eyes as she is the strongest character with a non-apologetic outlook. The female characters tend to be more strongly written with the men, which there are many, tend to be slightly more ambiguous . This may have something to do with this being a murder mystery about the murder of a child and that all men would naturally be the suspects.

The end of the world scenario is strongly written and the history of the hotel adds a ghostly presence over the atmosphere. This works extremely well and makes the hotel another character which is a huge asset. The breakdown of society is very well handled and when we leave the hotel, we get a glimpse of the outside world and what has transpired beyond the four walls. When we do leave the hotel, there are some loose ends that would have been great to get more info but as this is first person, we only can receive information that Jon receives so this makes perfect sense. It did pique my interest though to know more about other groups.

Overall, this is an excellent book and very interesting that leaves the reader satisfied but does make you yearn for more. With strong characters, perfect pacing and a narration that keeps things moving, this would make an interesting novel for book clubs due to the fact, it is one that you want to discuss. The ending is a little forced and quick but works well. I think when you have an ongoing saga that deals with end of the world, it is hard to end without leaving a lot open and have any type of conclusion. I will say that the mystery when solved felt like a footnote but fortunately that although this is what drives the plot forward, it’s the survival of the hotel occupants that keeps your attention so the mystery solve deflation wasn’t all that disappointing.

This is an interesting book and fast pace reading that should satisfy a lot of readers. It would be great to revisit this world to see how things progress. It is strongly written, thought provoking, murder mystery and a study of man rebuilding lives after a nuclear attack. I highly recommend as it has left me yearning for more.

I feel quite ambivalent about this book. I do enjoy end of the world stories such as the wonderful Station Eleven to which this book has been compared. I also devour crime novels so a novel which combines a murder mystery with the end of the world would seem to be my ideal read. Mm. Well no. I think the problem for me was the main protagonist Jon, a historian who's at a conference when the bombs start dropping. I don't find him an appealing character so didn't find myself rooting for him. Another problem was the ending which was abrupt and left lots of unanswered questions. There was also the bizarre introduction of a maybe ghost and a bit too much about religion for my liking. Some of the characters were just horrible, Tomi for example and characters turned to guns far too easily for my liking.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the ARC.

A great set-up with a group of survivors of an apocalyptical event holed up in a remote Swiss hotel.
Tensions abound... even before the body of a young girl is discovered.
Alliances are made and broken and the suspense is well sustained. A real page-turner.

This was an odd, but interesting combination of dystopian, post-apocalyptic meets murder mystery. For the most part it worked very well - the sense of isolation and living on the edge due to 'the end of the world', enhancing the mystery.

Even thought the concept was so modern. it did feel a little Agatha Christie (which isn't a b ad thing) - a group of strangers, thrown together and isolated within (mainly) one location, trying to work out who the murderer is.

However, I found the whole thing to be a little too unrealistic - I didn't quite buy into so many people just staying where they were and the rapid change in behaviour etc.

It was entertaining, and what felt a unique idea (depsite the traditional Christie-feels!), and I'd certainly read what the author writes next.

I didn’t know what to expect with this book, I just knew I liked the description given on netgalley.

I was hooked from the start. I enjoyed the fact that it was written in diary entries, it made me feel like I was actually in the story. There were places where I felt uncomfortable and on edge and places where the story actually made my heart go! & for an author to be able to make you feel extreme emotions like that whilst reading a book is incredible.

I will definitely be picking more up from Hanna in the future!

Was looking forward to this book, but unfortunately I didn't get the gripping wow factor I was expecting.
I felt the author brought two concepts together but didn't execute them, I felt she was unsure if it was a disaster story of a murder plot.
Just didn't feel they connected together.

Thank you netgalley, Penguin and Hanna Jameson for allowing me to read and review this book.

‘The end of the world is a fairly comforting concept, because – in theory – we wouldn’t have to survive it.’

In the aftermath of nuclear bombs wiping out the planet a small group of survivors remain in an isolated hotel in Switzerland, among them Jon Keller who narrates the story in the form of a journal. A historian by profession, this lends an interesting take on how we view events and the characters, with many references to truth, accuracy and reliability. As it turns out, truth and reliability are flexible constructs. A child’s body is found and it seems that we are in the genre of an Agatha Christie-esque novel, but the murder investigation starts to become secondary as the main characters struggle to survive in the aftermath of events, fracturing and splitting into factions. The hotel itself becomes as much a character, with gothic elements of ghosts, suicides and nightmarish visions.

I found this an enjoyable and page-turning read, and the mix of murder mystery and end of the world scenario was an intriguing one. There were the all-too-obvious references to an unnamed rogue American president who seems to have been the cause of the nuclear conflict (Donald Trump, anyone?) and there were self-referential nods to many other books and films within whose framework we can read Jameson’s novel (The Shining, Lord of the Flies, The Terminator, The Handmaid’s Tale, for example). Our main protagonist isn’t the most likeable person, and his story is gradually revealed by his journal as the book progresses. I found that, while I was racing through the last parts of the book to get to the end, the ending was weaker than I had expected and although it did indeed solve the mystery of ‘whodunnit’ it jarred with much of what had come before.

However, a good genre-mixing tale with some twists and turns that should interest a variety of readers. I definitely got caught up in the story and couldn’t put it down until I had finished it, so that must be a good sign! 4 stars, well worth a read, and I look forward to more from this author.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.)

A compelling murder mystery buried inside a narrative that takes the reader on a harrowing, apocalyptic survival romp.

Incredible writing with a host of characters whose behaviours are unsettling and haunting, yet also warming, as everyone faces the reality of a dying world in a hotel that serves as their safe haven, yet also their prison.

Think Agatha Christie meets Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and you are spot on for what to expect from Jameson’s new novel, this book punches you in the gut and evokes an exceptional, lingering sense of fear for a possible future plagued by nuclear warfare.

I absolutely loved this book! The apocalypse meets Agatha Christie in the hotel from the Shining. Incredibly gripping and just so much fun.

This is definitely a case of it’s not you, it’s me. Honestly, I’m probably not the best reader for this type of novel.. I didn’t even see any episode of The Walking Dead so safe to say that my interest in learning how to survive after a world apocalypse was rather small to start with. I really thought I was getting a locked-in murder mystery which was the reason I was excited to read The Last but that isn’t really what this book is about. The so-called investigation is actually near to non-existent and between all the other stuff that’s happening it’s only mentioned now and again until an amazing new revelation at the very end of the novel shines a light on who it might be.

What it actually is about is the survival of 20 individuals after they become isolated from the rest of the world. They’re a diverse bunch of people, coming from different countries, with different ages, families and single people too, everyone is pretty much represented. Existential questions like death, God etc were examined which was interesting and I thought it would be fascinating to see how people would react to the news they were probably the last people on earth. Sadly though, that extra fresh touch that I thought I would find here wasn’t really there, it all felt kind of predictable… some people are cowards and most of them are selfish, threatening and turning on each other, what else is new?

It wasn’t all that imaginative for me but I can’t really tell you what would be satisfying. I think I would have preferred it more if the novel had more of a The Last Man on Earth feel to it. Every society, and definitely a new one like this is of course prone to conflict and a difference of opinion. But even then and with the remote setting as an extra incentive I didn’t feel as much intensity as I wanted to.

I just want to finish by saying that I sincerely hope the world doesn’t come to an end because it doesn’t look good if you survive ;-). If you don’t believe me, you should read the novel :-).

I was drawn to this book by the comparison with Station Eleven, one of my favourite “end of the world as we know it” books
Jon Keller is a historian staying in a remote hotel in Switzerland, when the unthinkable happens, and nuclear bombs start falling on national capitals.
At first, people can get news through phone and internet, but that soon stops, and the residents have to find a way to exist in this dire situation
Jon decides to write a daily journal, as a record of how events unfold, and this forms the book. I found his observations of people in extreme circumstances very well realised, by my practical mind didn’t really believe any of it. I found the whole thing so unsatisfactory, wondered why the hotel staff (especially the kitchen staff) carried on doing their jobs, I wondered how they could keep turning gas on and off, and firing up the hotel boilers. And the water tank on the roof must have been bigger than the hotel itself.
Jon forms an alliance with the barman, and the head of security, who becomes the de facto leader of the group.
A child’s body is found in a water tank, and the book turns into a murder mystery, against an apocalyptic background.
The murder was finally resolved but not in a very unsatisfactory way.
This book could have been set anywhere remote and cut off from civilisation for the murder part of the plot to have worked, and the “end of the world” scenario just didn’t ring true.

Thanks to Netgalley and Viking for the opportunity to read this book.

"It was hard not to feel a sneaking suspicion that we were all meant to be here. I know this is just one way in which the mind seeks to reestablish control, searching for meaning in a largely random and uncaring universe. All the same, this was a strange place. Those of us who had stayed were only due to accidents, superstitions, because we had wandered off our usual paths. It was as if the building itself had drawn us to it from the most farflung corners of the world. And when we arrived, the world had ended."

Jon Keller, a historian, is staying at a remote Swiss hotel known for unusual deaths for a conference when nuclear war strikes and contact is lost with the outside world. After the initial fleeing and some suicides, twenty people decide to stay and wait for help to come. Dylan, hotel security, is the natural leader, Tania is the only doctor, Sophia the chef, Nathan an Australian bartender with a sad past and Tomi an American student writing a thesis on the history of the hotel. As supplies dwindle, tensions rise and can anyone be trusted? Then the body of a girl is found, clearly murdered. As paranoia increases, which Jon continues to document in his journal, he decides to investigate.

An claustrophobic, pacy dystopian thriller, I read this in 12 hours. I was intrigued to know what happens to Jon, who the murderer is and what has happened to the world outside the hotel; unfortunately, for me, the answers to all three were anticlimactic. I didn't feel any connection with the unknown murder victim, who we didn't know before her death and learnt little about after her death, similarly when the murderer was revealed. Ultimately I was frustrated by the ending, which stopped me rating this book higher.

I’m not usually a lover of dystopian end of the world stories but something about this book attracted me. I am so pleased I was given the chance to read it. Running through the book is the mysteries of dead bodies and whodunnit, but for me more importantly was the moral dilemmas that the survivors faced. I found myself many times thinking about how I would react in such a situation which led to some deep soul searching. A thoroughly enjoyable book.

Often the things that scare us the most aren’t things like ghosts and ghouls but real-life situations that have the potential to change our lives forever. In her latest book, Hanna Jameson plays on that very fear as she explores a dystopian view of the future following a world-wide nuclear attack.

Historian Jon Keller is on a business trip in Switzerland when the world ends. As news of a nuclear attack in Washington, as well as London, Munich, Paris and other major cities around the world come to light, Jon and the survivors realise that they are alone. Just twenty people remain in the hotel with nothing to do but wait and survive. On top of this, the body of a small girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks meaning someone in the hotel is a killer. As paranoia descends, Jon decides to investigate but how far is he willing to go in pursuit of justice and what happens if the killer doesn't want to be found?

What initially strikes you about THE LAST is the way in which it is written. Most books set in a post-apocalyptic environment are fraught with death, horror and misery but here, Jameson chooses not to focus on the battle for survival but the personal reflections one may experience as the world around them crumbles.

Feeling compelled to keep a record of the people isolated with him in a vast hotel, the story is told in a 'journal-style' format as Jon collect stories and feelings in the faint hope that some sort of civilisation will survive long enough to rediscover them. Through his diary, we experience what it would be like to hear that the world around you has ended but to be totally disconnected from the horrific events.

Yet, despite its interesting concept, THE LAST doesn’t quite live up to its original promise. Firstly, the main character Jon is not hugely likeable. While this is clearly intentional (throughout the course of the book, Jon reveals things about himself that you can’t help but dislike), it does mean you aren’t really personally invested in his story.

To drive the story forward, Jameson also throws a murder into the mix but sadly, it just didn’t grab me in the way I hoped. Like the other residents in the hotel, you wonder why Jon is so obsessed with finding out what happened to the young girl, especially when there are more concerning things to worry, about such as the lack of food or the threat of radiation poisoning.

But what’s even more disappointing is the ending. After a strong start to the book with plenty of tension, the final 10% just feels rushed, cliched and lacking in cohesiveness. The book ends so suddenly and abruptly that you are left feeling a little cheated, which is unfortunate as it detracts from, what up until then, had been an excellent story.

That said, THE LAST is certainly a thought-provoking read and I found myself questioning what I would do if I were in the same situation. In our current global political climate, it also feels startling plausible, which makes it all the more scary and impactful.

I'm not a fan of apocalyptic, end of the world style books as a rule. This book however proves that you should be prepared to give something different a chance. It is really well written and I enjoyed it. The mix of disaster, murder mystery, thriller was effective and the characters were interestingly developed.

This a an interesting account of end of the world survivors who are living in a hotel. The intense location focus is worked very well with consideration given to the illusion of safety offered by the hotel beginning to give way as the months go by, and the decisions that the survivors in the hotel and those who live outside the hotel begin to have to make. The vast majority of the novel is a narrative written by one person and therefore the story is filtered through his interpretation of the events, and amended accordingly as he learns from experiences.

I'll be honest, apocalyptic end-of-days stories aren't my usual bookish jam, but something about the description of this one intrigued me. I'm SO glad I took a chance on it! I don't really know how to describe it, the best I can offer is it's a kind of gothic apocalypse murder mystery?! Like if Daphne du Maurier wrote about nuclear war!

There are strong elements of the gothic here - a huge hotel with only a handful of occupants, a building with a troubled history of deaths and accidents, a suspicion that there may be more people staying there than they know about, bumps in the night, a dead body, a cast of characters who may not be what they seem, and a narrator who may or may not be losing their mind. The book has a very creepy atmosphere which surprisingly has very little to do with the impending nuclear winter.

The fallout from the nuclear destruction is almost incidental to the story, serving more as a means to isolate the characters and keep them trapped, although the potential cannibals lurking in the forest do add another layer of creepiness! I'm not convinced that the murder mystery element was wrapped up satisfactorily, but I'm not going to quibble about a book which was kept me so gripped for the last few hours. Hanna Jameson just made it to my Must Read Future Titles list!

It's an original concept to combine the nuclear apocalypse with a locked-room murder mystery. The suspense of the two genres play well together and increase the fear and claustrophobia of the setting.

The small, varied cast of characters are gathered in a remote Swiss hotel that has managed to escape the ravages of a series of nuclear attacks which have wiped many major western cities off the face of the planet. Their situation is tense and strained as they struggle to adapt the hotel to the needs of a new world and the focus is on the emerging society within the hotel walls, its structure and the new ideas of justice and ethics and personal rights that emerged in their transformed and isolated world.

The narrative is written by Jon, an American historian whose diary-cum-historical-record follows events in the from day to day. He has a strong narrative voice and his opinions, self-deceptions and changing reactions to his situations are delicately portrayed. His reactions and those of his companions feel authentic; their grief, fear, anger and despair, the search for someone to blame. There are some fantastic character interactions that manage so shed some fresh fresh light on the heavily-populated apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic literature.

Unfortunately, the strength of this aspect is undermined by the murder mystery, which is irritatingly peripheral for the majority of the novel. The quasi-mystical, semi-religious themes that emerge poorly from it. They sit uncomfortably for being unevenly, insufficiently developed. Similarly, the personal history of Nathan, the hotel's Australian barman and his stepfather's disappearance was bizarre in the extreme and if its weak musings on fate were the intended purpose of the novel it fell flat and increasingly derailed the story as it drew towards its lack-lustre conclusion which peters out in extremely frustrating fashion.

There were also some odd moments of ignorance so profound that I simply couldn't believe them. Many of the characters would have been alive when Three Mile Island and Chernobyl occurred and must have known the fear of acid rain during the 1980s and 1990s. The idea that none of these people were aware that rain falling after a nuclear holocaust would be radioactive is utterly ridiculous.

Absolutely stunning story. End of the world meets detective drama full of twists. The diary style entry really pulls you in and makes you want to run through the novel to find out what happens. I could picture every moment through true vivid descriptions, would make a fantastic film.