Book Review: World of Trouble (The Last Policeman Series) by Ben H. Winters

My rating: 4.75/5

From Amazon: "With the doomsday asteroid looming, Detective Hank Palace has found sanctuary in the woods of New England, secure in a well-stocked safe house with other onetime members of the Concord police force. But with time ticking away before the asteroid makes landfall, Hank’s safety is only relative, and his only relative—his sister Nico—isn’t safe. Soon, it’s clear that there’s more than one earth-shattering revelation on the horizon, and it’s up to Hank to solve the puzzle before time runs out . . . for everyone."

The Last Policeman series is officially one of my favorites now.  This last installment was just as good as the first two.

Though I wanted to see more of the doomed Earth in the second book, I actually liked how this one took place mostly in one location.  It made sense, and the progression from the first book's wider view of the world to this one's much narrower one was nice.

The author is great at writing heartbreaking scenes, which again in this book brought me to tears.  And the ending... you couldn't ask for a better ending to this series.  It is beautiful.  And Hank is a beautiful person, in the face of tragedy and the unknown, both personal and shared, in how he reacts so honestly and cares so deeply.  People think he's weird, and he knows it and doesn't entirely understand it (which almost seems like autism), and I think that's a very relatable trait that many readers will understand, and that they don't get to see very often.  There's not much else I can say without spoiling anything, but I will say that each character is unique and realistic, and they act and react both predictably and unpredictably... just like real people, with logic and reason twisted in the face imminent death.

I do wish the chapter headings had included, instead of just the date, something like "2 months ago," so that it was easier to tell when it was a flashback.  It wasn't terribly difficult to understand, but I'm a forgetful reader and wouldn't remember the current date, so I'd have to flip back to another chapter to see where I was at time-wise.  Not a big deal though; I still loved the flow of the book.

Like the rest of the series, I'd recommend it for high school and older.  And I'm sad that the series is over, but I look forward to more writing from Ben Winters.