Is it possible to have a cozy murder featuring the end of humanity as we know it? Could it be philosophical about what it means to be alive, and contemplate what it means to be human (and whether that's worth perpetuating?)

Apparently the answer is yes. Well done, Stuart Turton.

Fun genre mixing. Great world building and interesting characters. A quick and enjoyable read that doesn't require too much deus ex machina to hold together, which is saying a lot, considering how much ground setting is required to make the conflict, characters, and world itself clear.

Dropped a star because of the number of red herrings and an overall puzzle-box / mechanical nature of the mystery. But that's the genre, and it clearly thought everything out, even if it can feel a bit forced at times.

Fun stuff!

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this book. When reading the beginning of the book I had a hard time getting into it. Once I got about a quarter of the way in though I was into it and had to find out what was happening. I liked that it is a unique story taking place in a dystopian world. A very good read!

I am a huge fan of the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle. This one however was not for me. It was so strange. About 40% of the way thru there is a twist but still wierd. I wanted to like for the author's sake.

A deadly fog has taken over Earth. 125 villagers and 3 scientists are all that are left. Living an idyllic life at that. The scientists are revered by the villagers. The villagers happily spend their days doing the work that maintains their island without questions. Except for one villager who sees things a little differently. This book gave me grown up vibes of City of Ember and The Giver. I found the story enjoyable and intriguing. The beginning of the book was very calm and lovely as they set the stage for this environment. Once the clock started ticking down to the ending of humanity all bets were off. I couldn't put the book down at that point.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I did not get along well with The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I tried the e-book and I tried the audiobook. I was confused throughout much of the book and it just wasn't an enjoyable reading experience for me. I was hesitant about Turton's follow-up, The Devil and the Dark Water, because I didn't want that same experience. I put off reading it for a year, kept choosing "Deliver Later" every time my hold came in from Libby. I finally read the e-book and I loved it. It was nothing like Evelyn Hardcastle. It was a linear timeline! So I wasn't scared of The Last Murder at the End of the World. I'm so glad I got an ARC of it from BookishFirst and NetGalley and also bought a beautiful Waterstones sprayed edges signed exclusive edition!

The atmosphere in this book is so interesting and intriguing. It's a post-apocalyptic story where fog with deathly insects inside it covers the world except for a small island. The last of humanity lives on this small island. There can only be a certain number of people alive for the island and its food growth to sustain the people so no one lives past a certain age. Except for the Elders, who are of the old world. Who are the scientists and leaders of this small group of people. The way I was pulled into this story! It was so good and so gripping! As you learn more about the people, the island, the science, you learn who to trust and who not to trust.

There's an island surrounded by fog. Everything else has died off.

I thought I would love this story. I love a good dystopian. This book was just too overwritten. I hate the voices of the characters. I hated switching to the AI character. I just didn't care.

The Last Murder at the End of the World really caught my attention, not only with the title but with the description. I would think that I've got the murder figured out and then something else would happen that disputed my beliefs. I think this one works as a standalone, but readers might want more. I definitely wanted to know more about Hephaestus and Thea's history. Honestly, this was a book that I was not expecting to enjoy and I ended up racing to finish it in one sitting.

The title of Stuart Turton's new book caught my eye - The Last Murder at the End of the World. I enjoy post apocalyptic fiction and murder mysteries, so this was an easy book to pick up.

I'm always fascinated as to what an author imagines for the 'end of the world'. I liked what Turton has come up with - there's so many directions the plot could take from the opening chapters.

The end of the world is a small island surrounded by a poisonous black fog. Three elders make the decisions for the 121 gentle villagers. And then there's Abi - the artificial intelligence that speaks to everyone through their thoughts. When a body is found, its heralds the beginning of the end...

There's lots more about the island and the inhabitants to discover. Trying to solve a murder is a new situation for the villagers. Normally the elders take care of everything and their word is the final decision. But one villager is determined to get answers for not just the murder, but for the rest of their tiny piece of the world. They have 107 hours to solve the killing.

In addition to some great world building is the characters' growth. Will they find the whodunit? Will changes take place? Will they survive the changes?

Something different for me, but I very much enjoyed it.

★★★½
This was a very ambitious book as was Evelyn Hardcastle, which was a DNF for me. This one was more engaging although I think at the end of the day, this author's work may not be my cup of tea. This was a dystopian post apocalyptic science fiction mystery novel. I love mysteries; end-of-the world scenarios not so much. However, this did keep me reading so that I finished it in two days.
The positives: Mr. Turton has a very vivid imagination. The creation of the plot alone had to have taken tremendous mental prowess. We are in a world that was brought to an end by a fog that is layered with insects. A small group of people managed to survive and is threatened again with extinction. There are 122 villagers, three scientists and serious Artificial Intelligence involved. There is also a mechanism for erasing peoples' memories.
There is a murder on the island and the threat of extinction by bringing back the fog becomes real; the murderer must be found, make a confession and be put to death in order to avoid this.
Embedded within this story are issues around whether it is ever justifiable to commit murder, artificial intelligence, climate change, loyalty, and so on.
I loved the scope of this book.
What I did not love so much: the pace. There were times it was a bit slow. The jumpiness of the plot: there were times that it was hard to follow.
I read and listened to audio (alternated). I preferred the arc. It was a bit harder to follow in audio or to go back if I missed something. And while the narrator had a wonderful voice, I felt like the English accent was a bit much with this. Just my opinion for what it is worth.
Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark, Tantor Audio and, of course, NetGalley for providing me with access to this heady novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book had a very intriguing premise set in a post-apocalyptic island with fewer than 200 people living on it. The world was eradicated by a deadly fog with carnivorous insects that killed most of humanity. On one island, there are defenses against the fog which allowed a small remnant of the population survive. After a scientist is found murdered, the fog is no longer held back and its up to the villagers to figure out who killed her and find a way to put back the defenses. One wrinkle is that everyone’s memories have been wiped so piecing together what happened is difficult. There are several twists in this story, some of which I saw coming and some I didn’t. I thought the overall themes were done quite well, positing what it means to be human, and searching for ways to be better. I was entertained throughout the story and loved the world building but it didn’t feel as fast-paced or compulsive as his other books. Overall I recommend but just know that it’s more mystery than thriller. 3.5 stars

Very underwhelming. Not at all satisfying. The writing was dry and predictable. It almost felt written by bad AI.

Okay, while this book probably wasn't intended to be--it was a DELIGHT. Such a fun plot and I love everything about the mystery and dystopian aspects. Want to read again via audio. Predict a top seller for this one!

This was an unexpected story. It started out with "The Giver" by Lois Lowry vibes, but then turned around to something else. I was kept engaged and intrigued, even after each sort of new "reveal" or piece of information. Turton does a good job of keeping the reader wanting to know. I'd like to have found out more about how they ended up in this situation (not sure a bug-frenzied killer fog would be the result of human greed and environmental collapse, but suspending belief is the name of the sci-fi game!).

I liked this a lot! A cleverly crafted murder mystery!

This one took some time for me to get into but when I got into it I was reeeally in it. This was well written and descriptive enough that I could imagine the island. There are lots of strange things going on but the vast majority of the island residents don't ask questions, they just do what they've always done; Except Emory who is curious, some would say to a fault.

There were lots of surprises to come as the murder is investigated. It kept getting twistier but Emory kept digging, because the fate of the island and everyone in it depends on discovering what happened. I am not a regular Sci-fi reader but love a good mystery. This does have a lot of characters but they all felt different enough and easy to keep straight.

Would recommend!

The last murder at the end of the world turns into... many.

Set on an island with 122 villagers, and 3 elders - who are never to be questioned, just revered and followed - and an AI that can communicate with all of them and control the villagers completely. Abi hears their every thought and advises them on the correct path when needed. A deadly mist surrounds the island, held at bay by the generators.

They live a peaceful existence, until one day they wake up to find that one of their elders, Neima, has been murdered. All their memories of the night before have been wiped, and the generators are failing, allowing the mist to slowly encroach on them. Abi isn't answering questions, and tells Emory, the unruliest villager, that she has 97 hours to find out who killed Neima before the mist envelops them and kills them all.

This was my first experience with Stuart Turton, though I'd seen his other books around often. After reading this, I'll be sure to pick up his other titles. This was a compelling science fiction mystery, with high stakes, unreliable narrators, and abounding secrets. Sometimes it did seem almost overwhelming, the odds too great in the face of so little clues, and so much information being kept from Emory, and all the villagers. Things did come together though, and overall this was a very satisfying book. I was hooked once I got a feel for the world, and the pacing and writing kept me reading late into the night.

Summer novel from Stuart Turton - The Last Murder at the End of the World.

"Outside of the island the world was destroyed by the fog, killing everything it touched. On the island, the 125 residents are protected by a security barrier. Until the person controlling it is killed. The villagers have 92 hours to solve the murder and get the barriers back up."

This book gave me Wanderer vibes - there's an AI (Abi) that's in everyone's thoughts. It has certain directives that it can't deviate from. There are lots of clues about what's really going on, on the island. Part of it was surprising (Didn't see that coming!) I like that the contrarian is the one that's supposed to solve the murder (with a big time crunch) Lots of characters in this one. Not extremely difficult to keep them organized but you have to keep up. There is a dystopian feel to the story. The ending was surprising too.

The pace is steady, not a fast-paced story. Which was surprising given some of the chapter names (92 hours until humanity becomes extinct) You would expect a deadline to drive a story but not here.

A good and unique story from Turton.

There is an island at the end of the world, as the title would suggest. It contains very few people, but if they were to try to leave the island they probably would not make it past the thick fog. With 122 people and 3 scientists, everyone seems to be living well together. Even if they do have some strange rules.

Until one day, when one of their own is found murdered on the island (again as the title would suggest). This obviously, flips the islands world upside down. Because one of their own would have to be the murder, right?

I think that the plot was very interesting and the setting was very well executed. However, I found myself slightly bored. Which was not what I was hoping for when going into this book.

I’ve been a fan of Stuart Turton ever since I read The 7-1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle years ago. I am in awe of his ability to take an Agatha Christie-style murder and twist it into something new. First, he brought us a woman who will die every day unless her murderer is identified. Then, he penned a paranormal whodunit set on a ship in the 1600s. His latest, The Last Murder at the End of the World, is a murder mystery set in a post-apocalyptic setting.

While this is not my favorite book by Turton, I did appreciate how he tricked me into reading a post-apocalypse sci-fi novel. It’s not usually my cup of tea, but toss in a murder that has set off a chain of events that put the 122 remaining Earth survivors at risk of death by a killer fog that has taken out everyone else, and I was, dare I say, intrigued. The writing is smooth and engaging, but strangely somehow slower-paced for a book that deals with a ticking clock and tells the story through very short chapters. But that, of course, could just be the fact that I was reading a genre I don’t typically read.

If you’ve read Turton’s previous works, give this one a try if only to continue to be in awe of how his brain works.

As with many murder mystery books, I didn't notice any of the clues and didn't see the ending coming, so I always appreciate a character providing a recap. Also, I am quite new to a murder mystery being set during dystopian times, which contributes to an interesting backstory of how they got there, how they decided to live in harmony, and what their next steps are for the future....before the murder took place.

Kind of a standout for me for this author. I feel like I always want to like Stuart Turton more than I do; I find his "twisty" books tropey (in a good way) and fun, but I always feel like I see the twists coming so far away! However, this one had pretty well won me over by the end anyway—I enjoyed the actual characters and their interesting interpersonal dynamics quite a bit.