The Last Policeman has a fairly straightforward setup – a suicide that somehow seems fishy. Most of the other officers want to leave the case be. One cop believes it’s a murder, and will follow it to the end of the Earth.
Literally. The asteroid is due to hit the planet in less than a year.
There’s something special about this novel. Something almost ineffable in the way it hits the tone of this situation just right. Something beautifully haunting. The way it captures the quiet – and not so quiet – desperation of looming doom. And that’s what takes this novel from pretty good to “damn good”.
It’s worth noting that the day after I finished reading this novel, I learned that an asteroid had passed between the Earth and the moon. It had been discovered three days prior.