World of Trouble (The Last Policeman, #3)

by Ben H Winters

[inlibrisveritas]

World of Trouble closes out the Last Policeman trilogy and it was such a fantastic series ending! Let me take a moment to marvel that I started and finished a series in the same year…that NEVER happens! Take that as a sign of how much i enjoyed the series as a whole.

The third novels picks up a short time after the second one ends, and Detective Hank Palace is once again on the trail of a missing person. However this time it’s his sister, Nico, as well as her odd group of friends who are in search of a way to take out the asteroid before it does the same to them. When the book starts there isn’t much time left and Hank is desperate to find her before the end. I am still in love with the whole idea of a pre-apocalyptic book, and I need more! It’s so fascinating to read about how people handle knowing about the apocalypse before it happens. It brings something unique to the table. You not only get to see what the idea of a apocalypse does to a human, but the path it takes to get to that point. People don’t just become killers or fiercely protective for nothing, I loved seeing how as the books progressed to this point the people he encountered slowly became more difficult to deal with and to find. Society has degraded completely and human nature has reverted back to a point where a stranger could be spell the end and there are no chances taken. It’s gritty, scary, and totally plausible making this book (and the series) top-notch

Hank’s character development has also been phenomenal. When he starts out in The last Policeman he’s very much the rookie with his heart in the right place. He’s not the best at his job, but he’s the only one truly attempting. By the end of the series he’s grown into a more wary person, but also a person who wants to help out whenever he can. I love that he never lost that caring strike of his, and that despite knowing the shadier pasts of some people he gives them the benefit of the doubt. It’s a truly reckless way to live in the end of times,but it says something about how good of a person he is. His detective skills have gotten much better and it becomes something of a dependency for him and how he copes.

Overall it’s a fantastic series and I highly recommend it! It has the right amount of thrill, suspense, and mystery to keep you on the edge of your seat and hooked on the pages.