Countdown City (The Last Policeman, #2)

by Ben H Winters

“A genre-defying blend of crime writing and science fiction.”—Alexandra Alter, The New York Times

Detective Hank Palace returns in the second in the speculative mystery trilogy set on the brink of the apocalypse and winner of the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award.
 
There are just 77 days before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days of solving crimes are over...until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband.
 
Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace—an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone’s gone “bucket list” or just gone. With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off “impact zone” refugees.
 
Countdown City presents another fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse--and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond "whodunit." What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?

• ISBN10: 1306914612
• ISBN13: 9781306914611
• Publish Date: 1 January 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 14 April 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Quirk Books
• Language: English

Reviews

[sarahjay]

I love Hank. And I love the writing style. This book was weaker than The Last Policeman was, though. But the whole insane premise of this trilogy made up for that for me. The third book will probably be epic.

[inlibrisveritas]

Countdown City picks up shortly after The Last Policeman closes, with Hank Palace being out of a job but unable to stop helping people. This one centers around his old babysitter and her missing husband, but also continues to highlight the world around him as time moves forward and the end of the world becomes more tangible.

I love Hank. I marveled over his ability to keep focused on helping people even though everyone else is focused on living their last moments by seeing the world or crossing items off of their bucket list. Not Hank. He’s lost his job as a detective, but he’s still working and when his old babysitter tells him she can’t find her husband he sets off on a case that many would consider pointless. His journey to find Brett Cavatone leads him back to his sister Nico and her extremely optimistic “mission”. The entirely of this novel focuses on his diehard determination to do the job he has always wanted to do, even when it makes no sense to continue. In some ways it does seem like Hank is in denial about the end of the world, and more than one person asks him “why bother” throughout. Countdown City is his slow realization that he has sort of been spinning his wheels bit.

The pre-apocalyptic world is getting even messier as well, and I really enjoyed seeing more about the people around Hank. We see people try to compensation for the lack of government by making utopian societies, people with extremely HUGE ideas about how to survive, and people who are thriving now that they economy has allowed them to earn a profit of sorts. The mystery itself is a great addition, but readers will find that it’s not at the forefront of the story and find their attention being focused on the deteriorating society more than the missing person’s case.

Countdown City is a fantastic follow up to The Last Policeman and I can’t wait to delve into World of Trouble.

[lovelybookshelf]

This is a joint review of the first two books in the trilogy (no spoilers) originally posted on my blog, A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall:

A deadly asteroid is bound for earth. There's no hope left: People are abandoning their jobs, their responsibilities, fulfilling bucket lists, committing suicide. Hank Palace is the only policeman left who considers the possibility of murder when 99% of crime scenes are suicides; the only policemen left who cares enough to bother solving the case.

I can't believe I almost passed on the opportunity to read and review these two books. I'm kind of picky about mysteries, and crime fiction is usually not my thing, but the pre-apocalyptic angle intrigued me. I'm glad I took a chance, because I raced through these two books, reading them back-to-back.

There are 6 months until impact in The Last Policeman, and only 2½ months left in Countdown City. As you can imagine, society deteriorates more and more as time runs out. Both books are riveting. Ben Winters strikes the perfect balance between mystery, thriller, science, and bringing the reader into a society on the brink of devastation. The tone is never too heavy, and certainly not too light. The dialogue is fantastic. And our protagonist? Hank Palace is as kind and caring as he is fierce (when necessary).

Considering it is the first book in a trilogy, The Last Policeman had a surprisingly satisfying ending. It wrapped up in such a way that I could have easily put the series aside if I'd wanted, but that wasn't going to happen! Immediately upon finishing, I dived into Countdown City, which was equally as exciting.

What's the difference between what's lawful and what's right? When everything seems pointless, and there's no profit or gain, what choices will people make? How will people choose to spend their last few months? There's a short but especially powerful scene of readers holing themselves up in a library, devouring as many books as possible.

I couldn't read quickly enough, either: the first two books in Ben Winters's The Last Policeman trilogy are that good. I'm looking forward to reading the final installment.

I received a copy of each book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.