# The Last Policeman

![Book cover of The Last Policeman](/books/covers/the_last_policeman.jpg)

by [Ben H. Winters](/books/authors/ben_h_winters/)
Book 1 of [The Last Policeman](/books/series/the_last_policeman/)
★★★☆☆

## Review

_The Last Policeman_ by Ben H. Winters
is an apocalyptic detective novel set in Concord, New Hampshire. It follows
Detective Palace as he tries to solve a murder six months before an asteroid
is set to wipe out civilization.

When I watch a movie, I always want to peek around the frame. Not to see what
the cast and crew are doing on set, but to see more of the world and figure
out how it got to be the way it is. That's what drew me to _The Last Policeman_---the opportunity to explore the world just before the apocalypse and
understand how it reached that point.

The primary plot is a straightforward whodunit. A man is found hanged in a
McDonald's, and only Detective Palace believes it's murder; suicides,
especially by hanging, are common in Concord now that the world is ending. A
secondary plot follows Palace's younger sister, Nico, whose husband has gone
missing.

My favorite parts of _The Last Policeman_ are the flashbacks and glimpses of the
outside world: the day the asteroid was first announced, the news conference
when the impact probability hit 100%, the brewing war with Pakistan to prevent
them from nuking the asteroid, and the slow breakdown of society as people
abandon their old lives to live as they've always wanted, now that they can
see the end coming. It made me think about how I would handle the end of the
world. The book is similar to [_Gun, with Occasional Music_](/books/gun_with_occasional_music/), in that the world is the main
attraction and the detective story is secondary. And like [_Gun, with Occasional Music_](/books/gun_with_occasional_music/), _The Last Policeman_ doesn't quite give me enough of the world.

The mystery itself was fine. I was misled by several red herrings, so much so
that at one point I thought the main mystery was solved and the rest of the
story would focus on the Nico plot. In the end, the Nico plot drags the book
down: we discover she's a calculating psychopath who married her husband to
send him to his death in search of the government's secret plan to save the
world. This revelation comes out of nowhere and is clearly setting up the
thread that ties all three novels together. I hope it's another red herring
though, because the hopelessness of the book is so compelling that I would
hate to have it rendered pointless.

_The Last Policeman_ is a fast and fun read, and I look forward to seeing how the
world changes as the asteroid gets closer in [_Countdown City_](/books/countdown_city/).

## Reviews that mention _The Last Policeman_
- [_Countdown City_](/books/countdown_city/)
- [_Gun, with Occasional Music_](/books/gun_with_occasional_music/)
- [_The War of the Worlds_](/books/the_war_of_the_worlds/)†
- [_World of Trouble_](/books/world_of_trouble/)

† _Mentioned via a link to the series._

## Related Books
- [_Countdown City_](/books/countdown_city/) by [Ben H. Winters](/books/authors/ben_h_winters/) --- ★★☆☆☆: Countdown City, by Ben H. Winters, is the second novel in The Last Policeman series. In it, Detective Palace searches for a missing person as the world continues to deteriorate.
- [_World of Trouble_](/books/world_of_trouble/) by [Ben H. Winters](/books/authors/ben_h_winters/) --- ★★☆☆☆: World of Trouble, by Ben H. Winters, is the third and final novel in The Last Policeman series. It follows Detective Palace as he uncovers his sister’s involvement in a mysterious plot just days before the world’s end.
- [_Field of Dishonor_](/books/field_of_dishonor/) by [David Weber](/books/authors/david_weber/) --- ★★★☆☆: Field of Dishonor, by David Weber, is the fourth book in the Honor Harrington series. It reduces the scale of the narrative, trading fleet battles for political maneuvering and personal grudges.