The title of Stuart Turton’s third novel, The Last Murder at the End of the World, sounds compelling, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, I did not find the murder mystery aspect of this novel to be very compelling, which is too bad because I love a good mystery. There are other aspects of the novel that I did find interesting, though, but it may not be reason enough to read this novel if you are not already a fan of Turton’s.

The Last Murder at the End of the World is set on an island populated by one hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists. Outside the island there is nothing after the world was destroyed by a fog that came out of the earth, killing everything that it touched. The fog surrounds the island, kept back by a security system that is not really explained (or, to be honest, maybe it was explained and I missed it because there is a lot of information to absorb in this story). Life on the island is mostly idyllic because the villagers do all the work and respect the scientists, and do not complain when the scientists treat them like dirt.

One morning the head scientist, Dr. Niema Mandripilias, who is actually loved by the villagers, is found dead in a burning building. It quickly becomes evident that Niema has been murdered, and not only that, but with her death the security system that protects the island has been lowered and the killer fog is starting to creep closer. Another problem is that everybody’s memories of the previous night have been wiped. One of the villagers, Emory, who is not like the other villagers in the sense that she asks a lot of questions, has been tasked with finding out who killed Niema in the hope of getting the security system back online to stop the encroaching fog.

The problem I have with the mystery of Niema’s murder is that I feel like too much information is thrown at the reader and I just could not keep track of all it, so if there was a clue, I probably missed it. Maybe I should have drawn a flow chart while I was reading this novel. Another problem is once you learn the true nature of the villagers, the mystery just bounces back and forth between two suspects, which is kind of annoying to read, until I had a sudden suspicion of what the “twist” might be and correctly guessed the culprit.

What I did like about The Last Murder at the End of the World is that the investigator, Emory, is just as ignorant as the reader about what is really happening on the island, so everything she learns is quite the revelation. Without getting spoilery, the novel is set in the future when advances in science and technology allow humans to live longer lives (the scientists are all nearly two hundred years old) and everyone lives with an AI inside their heads that knows their thoughts and feelings and can predict their actions. I never thought I would write this, but the science fiction aspect of this novel is the best part, because it is used to critique humanity’s shortcomings and inability to feel empathy for each other. Seriously, Turton does not mince words in his criticism of how shitty the human race is.

If you have not read any of Turton’s novels before, I do not recommend reading this one first. Go back to his first novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, which is still his best novel to date.