Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of The Last Murder at the End of the World in exchange for an honest review.

At least 100 years from now, Earth is completely covered by a fog that somehow kills everyone it touches. Completely covered, that is, except for a tiny Greek island where this novel takes place. On that island, there are three elders and exactly 122 villagers, who live lives of honest work and simple pleasures. But nothing on the island is really as it seems. And when someone is found murdered, it starts a countdown on the island’s security system (there are reasons), and the villagers only have 107 to solve the murder before the fog rolls in and kills them all. And as if that weren’t challenging enough, all of their memories of the night of the murder have disappeared….

The Last Murder at the End of the World is a solid story with lots of interesting world-building. I liked several of the characters, especially the narrator Abi and fish out-of-water Emory. As with The Seven 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, it is intricately plotted, and the book builds nicely to a series of final reveals that are surprising and largely unguessable. But as with Mr. Turton’s earlier novel, the elaborate world-building and intricate plotting are a bit of a double-edged sword. So many of the mysteries and plot points ultimately turn on aspects of various pieces of future technology. The impossibility of it all was not entirely satisfying.

The further I got into The Last Murder at the End of the World, the faster I read it, wanting to understand what was happening. The story does draw you in. Recommended for anyone who enjoys a strong mystery-science fiction hybrid. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book started off with intrigue, but backed off quickly to give the basics of the world. That made it a little slower in the beginning, but not for long because you already had the draw from page one that made you want to know how we got there. I like the idea that we start off knowing the potential end of the book. The beginning of the book is told from a seemingly omniscient point of view between the elder in charge of the village and the symbiont in her head. There is a decent size cast of characters in this book, but the only part that sometimes would confuse me is when the symbiont would randomly interject. Sometimes I would have to take a second and realize who was talking or what for that matter. This was a very thrilling mystery with lots of danger and secrets all while a looming threat is literally on the horizon. I figured out one of the twists at the end, but not the other so I appreciated that there were a few twists at the end as opposed to one big reveal. If you liked the 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle I think you will like this book.

It’s very hard to review this book as I couldn’t finish it. It was hard to read. The names were difficult to pronounce. I wasn’t fully engaged with this book.

Though not my typical genre, I loved The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton!  In this thriller meets dystopian world, readers will find an unlikely whodunnit. What's left of humanity is rocked to their core when their leader is seemingly murdered by on of their own.  Secrets are revealed and nothing is what  it seems.

Click here to check out the book today.

This was definitely a strange book. Now since I read The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle I was expecting this book to be strange. This author has a way of writing where there are times I am not sure I am enjoying it and then suddenly I can’t put the book down no matter what. This book takes place beyond the end of civilization on a remote island. The island, and rest of the world, are surrounded in a fog that kills anyone who gets into it. The islands residents are protected by a boundary. The main narrator is an all knowing AI that can read the minds of the villagers as well as speak to them and exert influence. While the people on the island have all lived in peace for a long time there has been a murder and if the residents, who are completely unfamiliar with crime, don’t figure out who did it all of humanity will be ended. This book is a mystery but quite a unique one. I liked the amateur detective and she was by far my favorite character. I enjoyed this one over all and I feel like it will be one that sticks with me as I keep slowly digesting and processing what I read.

A dark fog has destroyed the world, but is kept at bay around this island by special emitters. The villagers live peacefully, doing what the elders tell them to… until they wake one morning to find one of the elders murdered, their memories wiped, and the fog creeping closer. The murder must be solved or the fog will smother the island, and everyone on it…

This sci-fi/dystopian, murder mystery was intriguing from the start, a thin band of tension consistently pushing me to keep reading. As the story shifted POVs among several members of the village, questions and mysteries piled up.

I loved Emory’s curious nature, thought to be a deficiency in a community where everyone is just supposed to blindly follow the elders. I enjoyed seeing her relationship with her daughter and her father evolve as they worked together to solve the murder.

One downside was there wasn’t a lot of emotional depth or variety of voice for the different characters because the narrator is an omniscient A.I. named Abi (that occasionally uses first-person for itself).

Through several twists and turns, this story kept me guessing and had an unexpected but satisfying conclusion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC.

First thank you to source books/landmark and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis: a murder of a scientist has occurred on a small island and the mystery must be solved before a fog kills everyone.

What I liked: this story had such a unique premise and liked the intersection of humanity, science and technology. It really gives you the reader a lot to think about. I don’t want to give away anything but this book had some things that I agreed with and others maybe not as much. Emory is the main female character and is charged with figuring out the mystery in time. She is given this job because she has always questioned things and people. That proves to be very valuable in trying to figure out the mystery in time. She is assisted by her father and daughter which adds another layer to the time crunch. This book also has an AI component to it which was interesting since I work in tech and everything is about AI. It did take you down paths where you thought you might have solved the mystery but then quickly found out you were wrong. I like that in a mystery. Overall I would recommend this book but would advise giving yourself time to read and focus on it. There are lots of nuances that could be missed if you rush through it.

I tried really hard to enjoy this one, I promise I did. Dystopian fiction/sci-fi is NOT my jam in general, but I thought I'd like this one more as I've really enjoyed Turton's previous books. But I should have known better - I DNF'd it.

More than likely it was me and not the book. However, I do think the blurb on netgalley could be a lot more upfront about just how different from his other work this one is.

Man, Turton knows how to write the weirdest, most creative shit and I’m here for it.

I loved The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle—it was an early bookstagram-made-me-do-it read shortly after creating my page—but I haven’t read anything by him since.

As with Evelyn, it definitely won’t be for everyone. But there are so many elements to which different readers will be drawn: sci-fi; post-apocalyptic dystopia; murder mystery and suspense; and some shocking twists and turns.

For fear of spoiling anything, you should go into this one as blind as possible. Just buckle up and prepare to unravel the island’s mysteries!

The Last Murder at the End of the World is complex and thoroughly thought out. This novel definitely leans more sci-fi than mystery, although there are many elements that will keep readers on their toes.

A murder on an island is one of my favorite thriller plot lines. Stuart Turton has given us another amazing novel, couldn’t put it down until the last page.

A dystopian thriller that was hard to put down. It's rare that I pick up a book that is this thought provoking, entertaining, and well developed. As the story unfolds, you get more vested in the characters, and the outcome.

I loved the fact that there was more focus on the current setting than what brought us to this isolated island. Each character was developed so well that I could identify with all of them, regardless of the ultimate outcome. Written from the perspective of the AI was brilliant for this book because it allowed us to 'connect' better with the characters.

This is definitely worth picking up. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

[3.5]

I loved The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read Turton's newest novel. I'm not the biggest fantasy/dystopian fan, but the vibes of this one are close to TJ Klune - and I LOOOOOOOOVED Under the Whispering Door (and his others of course). The novel follows a group of villagers and their scientist "elders" as they attempt to live peacefully just beyond the end of the world. Literally; the end of the world can be seen from the edge of their island. When their beloved leader is brutally killed, their time on the island, and within the world as a whole, is quickly diminishing. However, due to security measures in place, nobody knows who did it. Their memories are wiped clean and the killer could be any one of them. In order to survive, they must find who did this and punish them. Otherwise, their time is up in 72 hours.

This dystopian murder-mystery will leave you guessing until the very last page! I had no idea where this was going. You know something is wrong with the way the village interacts, but you can't really put your finger on it until some truths are revealed. Overall, I really liked the premise of the story and it really kept my attention at the end. My one complaint is that it was often hard to keep track of who was who and what their role was within the village. There were some characters introduced in the beginning that I thought would play a major role, but then were only mentioned once or twice. Some parts of the story also seemed a bit too long in places and short in others (without giving spoilers). If you're a fan of TJ Klune or are looking for a sci-fi who-dun-it, this book is for you!

⭐️: 3.5/5

After a deadly mist has overtaken most of the world, 122 villagers and 3 scientists live peacefully on an island protected by the mist. The villagers are happy to do what they’re told by the scientists, until one day, one of the scientists is found dead, triggering the mechanism protecting the island from the fog to fail. Now they have 92 hours to find the murderer or the island and everyone on it will be immersed in fog, but to complicate things, the security system has wiped everyone’s memories of what happened the night before, so even the murderer may not know who did it.

This was a pretty confusing concept for a post apocalyptic book, but I honestly shouldn’t have expected anything less from the author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. There was a lot of scene-setting, so that the reader could truly understand what was happening in the book and appreciate some of the plot twists and big reveals. It’s a really interesting take on a post-apocalyptic story, since it’s so rooted in fictional technologies that honestly add nicely to the sci-fi element. It’s close enough to our version of humanity, but the addition of technologies we don’t have yet makes it feel far enough away to enjoy. I also however found the descriptions of how the technologies worked to be a little half thought out, which kind of felt like it led to a lot of loose ends at the end of the story. I was entertained throughout the majority of the book, and really was interested in seeing how it all played out, but found the conclusion to be a bit of a let down, so that was disappointing. I still recommend the book though, since it’s a pretty fun read.

Thank you to @netgalley and @bookmarked for this free eARC for my review!!

Thank you to Net Galley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I have been reading books by Stuart Turton for years, and this year was no different. I was ecstatic to receive an advanced copy, and boy this book did not disappoint. This book was wild from start to finish and is sure to entertain.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

This was such a great read. The end of the world concept was so intriguing. I loved how the chapters were really short, making this a fast paced read. I enjoyed following the characters try to solve the murder. There were many thrilling twists and turns making this such an exciting read.

The Last Murder at the End of the World is a unique and fascinating story. There's a bit of of the standard post-apocalyptic build up, but this one holds so much more! One of the best books of 2024.

3.5⭐️
It was a smart mystery and was well written. This book felt like a cross between Lost and West World. It is a post apocalyptic, dystopian, sci-fi murder mystery. While the premise is well constructed and intricate and the story is well written, this was a little slow. There were too many characters so I found it hard to connect with any one character. I was expecting a different story so this was not really my type of novel. I think fans of dystopian sci-fi novels will find this enjoyable.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an advanced reader’s copy.

I liked the second half significantly more than I liked the first half (setting the scene took way too long and honestly wasn’t as relevant as I would have expected) but what kept me from truly enjoying it was that the timeline made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I got so wrapped around the axel trying to puzzle through the 90-40-20 years ago events when almost every character is old enough that the 20 years ago events should have been at least in living memory but that go completely unacknowledged? Plus in the 91-hours timeline, I don’t think everything that happened would be feasible.

So as great as the Emory/Clara/Seth dynamic ended up being (and as awesome and complicated and messy as Thea’s whole character was), I couldn’t resolve enough of the framework of the story to buy into everything that was built on it.

I don’t even know where to start gathering my thoughts on this. It is multi-faceted, as is to be expected from Turton. I LOVE the idea behind this and was really drawn in by the beginning. Humanity has been wiped out by a killer fog, but inhabitants of a single island have been able to keep the fog back. Things are strange and one of the scientists responsible for keeping the fog away has been killed. The fog is now approaching and nobody has any memories of the night of the murder, so Emory is tasked with finding the culprit.

Strange things are afoot on this island and I enjoyed these reveals. I love the dystopian aspect and the threat of the fog. Emory as a character was fine, and the hierarchy of the island was interesting. I just felt like we were moving around way too much, which is frequently a complaint I have with more plot driven stories. I want more character time and exploration. There was a lot that these characters could have unpacked and while there was relationship development, it took a backseat to scrambling around the island trying to find the murderer. There was just a lot that was packed into these pages, but I feel like the ending wrapped it up nicely enough for me.

I am fascinated by the Stuart Turton’s brain and will always pick up his books for fresh perspectives and stories.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review