The Last Murder At The End Of The World by Stuart Turton

 

In a post-apocalyptic world, the remnants of humanity survive on an island, 122 villagers and 3 scientists. The terrifying fog which has decimated mankind is held at bay by a barrier. When one of the scientists is murdered the barrier is lowered and the fog begins to encroach. They have 107 hours to solve the murder before the island is completely covered.

Although I have seen quite a buzz on Twitter regarding The Last Murder At The End Of The World by Stuart Turton I went in completely blind, having pretty much avoided any in-depth reviews. I think "dystopian" is the only thing I'd really picked up on and that is guaranteed to pique my interest. I struggled with the first half of the novel as I couldn't get my head around what was happening. I was also struggling to understand what genre I was reading - thriller, sci-fi, fantasy. Things only started to fall into place around the mid-way point, and by the end, I've decided that the novel fits into all of those genres. 

Set a couple of hundred years in the future, mankind is clinging to life on a small island. There are 122 villagers and 3 scientists, alongside a shared "consciousness" that everyone can hear and speak to - an internal Siri or Alexa. The villagers are content, they work by day to ensure everyone's needs are met, and they don't question authority. At night everyone falls asleep at the same time and stays asleep until morning. There are never more than 122 villagers as this is the maximum number that the island can maintain, at the age of sixty they die and are replaced by an eight-year-old child.

I was filled with questions, wondering why the villagers and the scientists were so different, how everyone fell asleep at the same time, and where the children came from. Stuart Turton has crafted a society that feels as if it's on the brink of perfection, a utopia, but there is that little nagging doubt, like a loose thread that you can't help but pull at. Pulling that thread is Emory, a villager who hasn't quite found her place in society, she's too inquisitive. This quest for answers is exactly what is needed when one of the scientists is murdered. With limited time left she needs to solve the murder before the fog encompasses everything.

At the heart of the story is human behaviour. Instead of working together to overcome societies, and the worlds, problems, power and wealth are the things people crave. Given the chance to start over would we be any different?

Author Details

Stuart Turton’s debut novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, won the Costa First Novel Award and the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Best Novel, and was shortlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards and the British Book Awards Debut of the Year. A Sunday Times bestseller, it has been translated into over thirty languages, and has sold over one million copies in the UK and US combined. The Devil and the Dark Water, his follow up, won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Fiction and was selected for the BBC Two Book Club, Between the Covers, and the Radio 2 Jo Whiley Book Club. Stuart lives near London with his wife and daughters.