The Last Murder at the End of the World

by Stuart Turton

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Last Murder at the End of the World is a trippy SF/dystopian island murder mystery set against a post-apocalyptic extinction event written by Stuart Turton. Released 21st May 2024 by Sourcebooks on their Landmark imprint, it's 368 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format due out 1st quarter 2025 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

This is an oddly compelling story, about the descendants of a group of survivors from a catastrophic level event which killed the vast majority of humanity. There are a handful of survivors who still remember the original event, and they're elders and govern the few hundred vestiges of humanity who are left on a tiny atoll island bunker after everyone else is gone. 

The writing is solid. The plot and science aspects much less so. At the base of the whole is a pretty well plotted isolated murder mystery setting with a limited pool of suspects. The execution is problematic, because the author works against the reader to obfuscate and muddle the story at every step. The plot is a bit scattered, there's a universal telepathic narrator which lives in the thoughts of all the characters in the book called Abi, there are physical and psychological dangers at every turn, and the titular murder sets events in motion which will result in the demise of the last vestiges of humanity if not solved in a very short window of time.

The unabridged audiobook version has a run time of 11 hours 21 minutes and is capably read by James Cameron Stewart. He has a classically trained, very well enunciated light baritone and manages the various characters well, both male and female. The choice of a man to voice a book mostly filled with female characters (Abi is also described as female) was perhaps odd, but he does an exemplary job with the read. Sound and production quality are high throughout.

Three and a half stars. The author is wildly popular, so it would make a good choice for public library acquisition, and possibly for book club discussion. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.