Hugely inventive ... Turton is excellent at slowly revealing the details about this post-apocalyptic world and its inhabitants ... I was engrossed in this high-concept thriller.
The Last Murder at the End of the World works well, and it does so on two different levels. Right at the surface, this is a wonderful hybrid that blends postapocalyptic science fiction with a murder mystery ... While genre elements are right at the surface here, The Last Murder at the End of the World is also a deep novel about big ideas ... The pacing isn't constant and the telling feels a tad mechanical in some passages, probably because of everything that's going on in the story.
Even given the momentum this ticking clock injects into proceedings, the novel lacks the bold dynamism of Turton’s earlier books ... Beyond lead investigator Emory and the elders, characters are barely sketched in, which also makes it hard to care whether they survive. The novel explores free will and morality, but only in a perfunctory way. And while the pace is helped by short chapters, the writing has moments of naffness.
Despite its creative worldbuilding and thoughtful philosophizing, the story doesn’t quite live up to the promise of the sweeping ideas within it ... Where the novel falls short... is its characters, who are largely flat and difficult to connect to, and whose general blandness means the story must rely on a series of misdirections to keep the narrative moving ... But even though its ending doesn’t pack the punch many readers... may have hoped, the book’s fully realized worldbuilding and unique premise is worth the price of admission.
I admired Turton’s daring experiment, but it ultimately left me disorientated and maybe even a little bit weary. Readers will need dedication to persist and keep up with the entangling plot twists. Had it been 100 pages shorter with fewer plot lines, it would have packed a bigger punch, allowing its innovative style to shine through.
Turton has created a complex world and characters in a page-turner centered on what it means to be human and whether those qualities are worth preserving. There is very real suspense as the clock runs down on Emory’s investigation, plus true emotional depth in the struggles she and her fellow survivors face.
Long and talky and light on characterizations, Turton’s latest is a bit mechanical in the telling, perhaps owing to the AI’s role as narrator. But it’s a fresh twist on dystopian fiction with its share of surprises.
