Stuart Turton returns with another brain-teasing, genre-bending puzzle that asks a wicked question: can you solve a murder in time to save the last pocket of humanity? Set on an isolated island protected from a planet-wide, lethal fog, The Last Murder at the End of the World blends classic whodunit mechanics with post-apocalyptic science fiction and a fierce countdown. The hook is irresistible. The execution will divide readers.
The setup: paradise under glass
An enclave of 122 villagers lives under a strict curfew and the watch of three scientists who maintain the barrier keeping the fog at bay. When one of the scientists is stabbed, the security system begins to fail and everyone’s memories of the previous night are wiped clean. The island now has 107 hours to find a killer or be swallowed whole. Turton uses this ticking clock and community amnesia to create immediate stakes and a chilly sense of surveillance and control.
What works
- High-concept suspense: The first half is riveting. Reviewers consistently note how the worldbuilding drip-feeds sinister clues, building dread while slotting key revelations into place. The island itself feels like a character, idyllic on the surface, engineered at the core.
- Puzzle architecture: Short chapters, shifting reveals, and rule-bound constraints create the intellectual pleasure of a closed-circle mystery under extreme pressure.
- Ambition and theme: Turton prods at memory, consent, and what counts as humanity. The amnesia device is not just a gimmick. It interrogates how truth is constructed and controlled, especially when an omnipresent system decides what you can know.
Where readers struggle
- A second-half drag: Several readers report a momentum dip once the investigation machinery takes over. The cast balloons, subplots multiply, and the narrative becomes a maze of small revelations that twist, then retwist. If you are not actively note-taking, names and roles can blur.
- Dual narration friction: The interplay of first and third person perspectives creates occasional dissonance about whose understanding we are inside. That formal choice can feel clever in design but confusing in practice.
- Over-engineering: The novel sometimes feels like an elaborate puzzle box that privileges mechanism over emotion. A few readers found themselves admiring the construction while feeling detached from the people moving through it.
Characters and voice
Emory emerges as the tenacious center, a determined investigator piecing together scraps of truth under a failing sky. Around her, the scientists, villagers, and a rule-bound AI create an ethical minefield. The island’s celebratory culture of art and shared work contrasts with a laboratory ethos that treats some lives as expendable. That tension fuels the book’s most provocative questions, even when the plot grows dense.
Pacing and readability
If you loved the clockwork bravura of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, you will appreciate Turton’s appetite for constraints and formal games. If you prefer the cleaner propulsion of a traditional mystery, the mid-book complexity may frustrate. This is a novel that rewards patient, detail-oriented reading, and some will want to reread early chapters once the larger pattern emerges.
Verdict
Inventive, audacious, and thematically chewy, The Last Murder at the End of the World delivers a top-tier premise and an atmospheric first half, then dares you to keep up as the puzzle tightens. Expect brilliance mixed with bloat, clarity interlaced with confusion. For readers who enjoy high-concept mysteries with sci-fi scaffolding and do not mind a demanding second act, this will be catnip. For those who want a streamlined whodunit, approach with tempered expectations.
Recommended for: fans of closed-circle mysteries, speculative thrillers with moral questions, and readers who liked the structural play of Evelyn Hardcastle and the eerie survivalism of Station Eleven.
Content notes: violence, murder, pervasive dread, memory manipulation.
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