Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Last Policeman
    The Last Policeman
    The Last Policeman
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Last Policeman

    Written by Ben H. Winters

    Narrated by Peter Berkrot

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    As Seen on Today with Hoda & Jenna

    “A genre-defying blend of crime writing and science fiction.” —Alexandra Alter, The New York Times

    Winner of the 2013 Edgar® Award for Best Paperback Original!

    What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?

    Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.

    The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

    The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 10, 2012
    ISBN9781469226224
    The Last Policeman
    Author

    Ben H. Winters

    Ben H. Winters is an author and educator who has written plays and musicals for children and adults, as well as several books in the bestselling Worst-Case Scenario Survival Guide series. He is also the author of The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, Bedbugs, and the parody novels Android Karenina and the bestselling Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. He lives in Indianapolis.

    Related to The Last Policeman

    Titles in the series (3)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Police Procedural For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Put Down the Controller: Five Novels About Video Games

      Jul 31, 2017

      The ways that books and video games can tell us stories aren’t as different as I used to think. Both insist upon our willingness to escape from the workaday world in order to step into one built word by word or bit by bit by somebody else. The post P

      5 min read

    • Article

      Jay Kristoff

      Sep 8, 2021

      MOST NOVELISTS HAVE AT LEAST ONE book in a drawer that represents an early effort, a text that will never be offered up to a wider readership. In the case of Jay Kristoff, this book was a tale of bloodsuckers he wrote in 2008. “It was right at the ta

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Cruel Irony of Social Distancing When You’re Stuck in Solitary

      May 8, 2020

      To listen to my governor, Andrew Cuomo, hold his daily press conferences about COVID-19, I must sit on a cold, round metal stool inside a windowless 8-by-12-foot cell with a metal shower and toilet and an adjoining “rec pen” that feels like a caged,

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Penalty

      Nov 5, 2020

      The Penalty
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Conversation

      Nov 1, 2023

      The Art Of Conversation
      4 min read

    • Article

      Letterbocks

      Nov 19, 2020

      I HAD my septic tank emptied by an engineer called Thomas Moore. I was about make a very clever play on words by remarking “who will rid me of this turbulent piss,” when I remembered that was Thomas Becket, not Thomas More, and so narrowly avoided a

      9 min read

    • Article

      LeTteR BocKS

      Jun 24, 2021

      SCIENTISTS say that in the future, all meals will be in the form of a pill. Let’s hope they are right, and they don’t develop them in the form of a suppository. I think that would make dining out a most unpleasant experience. Umberto Coaltit, Hull YO

      13 min read

    • Article

      It’s Surprisingly Tough to Avoid Snitching in Prison

      Jul 20, 2018

      “Snitches get stitches.” It’s principle number one of the Convict Code, the fabled law of honor among thieves. When I first entered the system, I figured avoiding snitching would be easy. How hard could it be not to betray your friends? One day a b

      5 min read

    • Article

      SCARS On The SOUL

      Jan 12, 2020

      I’m standing in a fiercely lit changing room, waiting for Joao-from-Portugal to bring me smaller jeans and a bigger top. I used to think ‘Joao’ was a totally exotic name until I visited Lisbon and realised that every second man in Portugal is called

      2 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      I Got 99 Problems

      Nov 4, 2020

      I have never been in a serious relationship and my whole family is convinced I’m secretly gay. I’d happily tell them if I were, but I’m content on my own. How can I make them understand? A. S., North Yorkshire No problem here, that I can detect. Tr

      4 min read

    • Article

      Letter Boks

      Feb 4, 2021

      I READ that Christopher Columbus was 41 years old when he went to America, and as a consequence everyone celebrates him to this day. I was 25 when I first landed on the East Coast of the USA, and yet not one book has been written about me despite the

      18 min read

    • Article

      The Sticky Tar Pit of Time

      Sep 11, 2019

      The Sticky Tar Pit of Time
      6 min read

    • Article

      LeTteR Bocks

      Aug 4, 2022

      ◻PLEASE find attached this trademark from a box of eggs, which appears to show a chicken lifting its leg to crack off an eggy one. Susan Butcher, Australia ◻FORMER Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticised for meeting an ex-KGB agent without h

      13 min read

    • Article

      The Straw Hat

      Aug 2, 2018

      The Straw Hat
      6 min read

    • Article

      Prohibition

      Sep 10, 2021

      It had been ten days since my last fix. I knew what I was going to do was wrong, but unless you knew the yearning that your body exerts, the internal pull which strangles your very soul into submission, then you cannot judge me. Yes, it was wrong. Ye

      15 min read

    • Article

      The Book of Loki

      Mar 12, 2018

      The Book of Loki
      20 min read

    • Article

      A Pacifist's Plan to Survive the Violent World of Prison

      Nov 6, 2020

      Before I even open my eyes I am reminded of where I am, by the yelling and smell of sweat in the dormitory, the hardness of the metal bunk beneath my four-inch thick mattress, the fluorescent lights burning through my eyelids, my anxiety. When I do

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Last Policeman

    4/5

    1,010 ratings135 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Heard an interview with the author describing the book and was immediately hooked. The premise of this mystery- the first of a trilogy- is that a small town detective investigates an apparent suicide as a possible murder. The catch is that it takes place about 7 months before an asteroid is about to hit Earth ending all civilization and human life. Society is slowly breaking down and the protagonist is one of the few remaining that actually still cares about retaining some sense of justice or duty. I can't say I was disappointed...the novel provides enough pre-apocalyptic fun and noir-ish moral ambiguity to make it well worth reading. I finished it though with the longing that it could have been a bit, I don't know, bleaker. A tone more akin to McCarthy's The Road would have felt more appropriate. Though in the author's defense, it is told through a narrator that still cares and is fully connected to his sense of right and wrong. It wouldn't work to have that narrative voice be too nihilistic. Nonetheless, a fun intriguing read and I am looking forward to the two remaining in the trilogy.
    • 4/5
      I received this book from an Early Reviewers reward and wasn't sure if I would like it. I did. Detective Hank Palace is in a heck of a pickle. Asteroid 2011GV is hurtling toward earth. Or is it? Hank stays on the job while others while away what they believe to be their last days. Pre-apocalyptic novel. I have also read the second book in the trilogy and enjoyed it as well.
    • 4/5
      AUTHOR Winters, Ben H.TITLE: The Last PolicemanDATE READ: 02/14/2016RATING 4.5/B+GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS Crime Fiction/ 2012 / Quirk Books / 318 pgs SERI ES/STAND-ALONE: #1 in trilogyCHARACTERS Henry Palace / police detective TIME/PLACE: 2011/Concord, NH FIRST LINES I'm staring at the insurance man and he's staring at me, two cold gray eyes behind old-fashioned tortoiseshell frames, and I'm having this awful and inspiring feeling, like holy moly this is real, and I don't know if I'm ready, I really don't.COMMENTS: The world is about to end --everyone on earth is on alert for an asteroid that is on the path to destroy most of the planet. With doomsday looming… things have changed. There is an overall ennui, lack of energy, no growth w/ this impending gloom. No one cares … there are few jobs, technology is not advancing and almost non-existent in some areas. Many are seeking escape through opiates and other drugs and or the ultimate final escape. Suicides are so plentiful they are rarely questioned … Henry Palace is a young detective who still thinks life matters and when he finds the hanging body of Pete Zell, an insurance worker. His instincts lead him to think murder and he pursues the case w/o much help from his dept or elsewhere. Interesting premise.
    • 4/5
      What would you do if you knew your days were numbered? If you were Henry Palace, you would keep doing your job. All Henry has wanted to do, since his mother was killed when he was twelve, was be a police officer. He has recently been promoted to detective after only one year and three months as a patrol officer. Many people from all walks of life are walking off their jobs to complete the items on their "bucket lists" before Maia, a huge asteroid, impacts somewhere on Earth on Oct. 5. And those who are still on their jobs are often suffering from depression and a complete lack of interest in the job. Suicide has become increasingly common.When Henry is called to a suicide in a McDonald's restroom, he thinks something is wrong. He believes that insurance man Peter Zell was murdered and he is determined to investigate no matter what obstacles might be in his way. And the obstacles are many. There are false trails, red herrings, government plots and a variety of obstructive witnesses.Henry is an admirable character. He is persistent. I do wonder how much his devotion to finding out the truth is his way of coping with the very uncertain future. It was also fascinating to watch the world around him fall apart as essential services fail and society disintegrates. I recommend this one for dystopia fans and for mystery fans as well. It was a very compelling read.
    • 5/5
      I don't write too many reviews but felt like i needed to for this book. The premise and narration are excellent. You will not regret listening!!!
    • 4/5
      I've read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction, and I think this might be my first pre-apocalyptic novel. This book has an ingenious premise, and happily, Winters does a great job with it. It's a beautifully written and thoughtful book, with a wonderful premise and a great mystery. Winters does best at considering what people would do, knowing that they have a short amount of time left to live. He shows us the bizarre things that continue to, inexplicably, hold value for normal people, and those that do not. This publisher has generally been known for rather gimmicky, less-than-top-notch fiction, but with this book, they are clearly trying to make a change.
    • 4/5
      Detective Henry Palace is on the scene for an apparent suicide of an insurance man, Peter Zell. There have been a lot of suicides by hanging in Concord, New Hampshire, which is really no surprise since an asteroid is on its way to earth and people have been acting in the ways you might expect: finding religion, participating in orgies, quitting jobs for their bucket list. And a few, like Hank Palace, take each day as it comes and continue to work hard, even when everyone around them is saying it's hopeless. Palace is convinced that the Zell case is murder rather than suicide, and though his department is decimated and there are only months to live, he pursues his hunch.This police procedural with a twist - not just the asteroid but government conspiracies and the sidestory of Palace's sister Nico - was a perfect read for a snowy afternoon. There were red herrings aplenty and I was surprised by some of the turns taken in the story (maybe I was just reading too fast?). The mystery was wrapped up in a way that made sense even though I was baffled for most of the book, though the coming asteroid and feel of the police department leave you rather unsettled instead of assured justice will prevail. One aspect left tantalizing unresolved - though not quite a cliffhanger - must have a larger role in the remaining books in the trilogy.
    • 4/5
      Remember (hopefully you can) your freshman college days and your LIT1 study of Samuel Taylor Colridge's "suspension of disbelief". If you accept the basic premise here that for most of us life is about to end, suddenly, you will rip through this work with great ease. It is well well conceived and nicely executed. It will move you along from scene to scene all the while suspense builds as THE END approaches. This book is well worth the time and effort it takes to read, and I look forward to this author's next novel.
    • 4/5
      Novel premise--murder mystery with extension event comet headed toward earth--well told.
    • 4/5
      The mystery wasn't quite as engaging as, say Keigo Higashino, but the asteroid twist gave it that little bit of extra to grab my interest. I also enjoyed the style - it created in me the same sense of pleasant disconnect/solitude I get when reading Haruki Murakami, like there is a layer of cotton wool between the character and the world.
    • 4/5
      Well written, well-plotted, and very interesting premise. Looking forward to the second in the alleged trilogy.
    • 4/5
      I finished reading this book right around when I finished The Age of Miracles, so I've read two completely different pre-apolcalyptic novels in the last few weeks. Both of them do ask the same kind of question, though: If you knew when your last day on Earth would be, how would you live the rest of your days? In this story, Detective Hank Palace chooses to do his job and try to solve a murder, despite the fact that the Earth has six months until disaster. Most people wouldn't care about this dead man -- after all, who cares? But Hank Palace cares, and that's part of what made this a pretty compelling read for me.I liked that Hank's not an open book as a character -- it takes time to get to know him, and even then, I wasn't always sure I really knew him. I'm fine with that -- it keeps me interested. The storyline also kept me interested, with Hank solving the murder --- because it soon becomes apparent that there's a lot more to this one man's death than first meets the eye. I liked that the author gave me some twists and turns, and kept me guessing. I don't read a lot of mysteries, but when I do, I like to be surprised by the ending.Going on in the background of the story is the ever-present disaster, and how other people are living out the last six months that they have. As might be expected, the economy has tanked, and a lot of people don't see the point of going to work and doing their jobs (which makes sense). I like how the author plotted this, planned an "expiration date," and then shows how the world is reacting -- and how Hank's determination to do his job plays out against all of that. Even without the impending disaster, however, this is a great mystery story, with an even pace, and well-written characters. I can see why the author has been an Edgar Award nominee -- this is good stuff! This is also the first book of a planned trilogy, so I'm already looking forward to the next story.
    • 1/5
      It was a very tedious, read, somewhat hard to follow, and in many parts boring
    • 3/5
      This is the first book in a trilogy and definitely sets up an intriguing "end of the world" situation. As far as the mystery is concerned, it was almost predictable, but I found it annoying when the main character determines that he has solved the murder, but then takes many more pages and even chapters to explain to the reader.
      I'll likely read the next book (though not immediately) just to follow through with the asteroid racing to hit the earth (with 100% probability) and how civilization reacts... and also because a good reader friend recommended the whole series. But I'm not sure just the mystery plot of the book would be drawing me in.
    • 3/5
      I began reading The Last Policeman with seriously high hopes for the series. The idea of a asteroid connecting with Earth and destroying humanity is terrifying and thrilling. I really hoped that with this premise, along with a police mystery, would be an equation for an amazing story.
      It was, but it wasn't. I was happy with the book and throughly enjoyed it, but it didn't blow me away either. Winters is an excellent author and did a great job creating the character of Detective Palace and setting the scene on which this story unfolds. Knowing this is a trilogy, I have to take that into consideration when I think back to the beginning of this novel. While reading, I felt that it just took much too long to get into the meat and potatoes of the story. I understand that in a series it is essential to lay a foundation on which the story can develop, but for me it was just a tad bit too much here. I struggled to get into the book and stay engaged.... that is, until I got about halfway through. THEN things picked up.
      As Palace gets deeper into the mystery of his hanger, I couldn't put the book down. Once things really got moving, this novel had some serious heat. The asteroid was there, hanging out in the background, while this gigantic mystery begins to unfold... and then Winters throws in a small little tidbit of information that opens up a whole new can of worms.. and oh do I hope hope hope that this little tidbit of conspiracy theory is a big part of the rest of this series.
      Winters may have bored me a bit in the beginning, but looking back with the lens of a series foundation, I get it and appreciate it. Once The Last Policeman got moving, I was caught in Winters grasp and am now waiting with baited breath for the next novel to come out.
    • 4/5
      This book would be a police procedural, but since the world is about to end when an asteroid collides with Earth in six months, newly elevated police detective Henry Palace is essentially operating as a private detective. Henry suspects that the assumed suicide of an insurance actuary was a murder. However, given the state of the world no one but Henry is feeling really inspired to investigate crimes. Henry's sister also enlists his aid in tracking down her missing husband. What you have is a crime story with something really interesting going on in the background. The author used the same formula in "Underground Airlines", which was one of my favorite books this year, so the formula seems to be working for him so far.This is the first book of a trilogy and accordingly there are lots of loose ends at the conclusion of this book. However the murder mystery does appear to be solved. I usually find that authors stretch the story too thin when they write trilogies and that the second books, in particular, tend to be placeholders, but I'm hoping for the best with this one. This was a very entertaining book and a quick read and I will definitely read the next book.
    • 4/5


      Fun read. Great concept and lead character. Good airplane book.
    • 5/5
      Great story and concept, very relevant as well without being preachy or agenda driven. Can't wait to listen to the other two books in the series. The narrator reminds me of Casey Kasem and I am really enjoying him. Highly recommend this series.
    • 4/5
      Rhapsodised about on The Incomparable but didn't blow me away. Fascinating setting—what would society actually do faced with apocalypse?—with a standard police procedural tacked on and perhaps somewhat distracting from the much more interesting questions posed in the rest. No doubt this will build and deepen in the next two books.
    • 4/5
      They say that there is really only three types of conflict: man vs. man/God/society; man vs. nature; and man vs. self. This story pretty much embodies all three.

      I very much enjoyed the setting this was placed - a world that's less than a year away from being blown to smithereens. And Detective Hank Palace somewhat outdated need to solve a murder case. Palace is a pretty likeable character and the story is told from his perspective. I would have liked to read more why he felt the need to do what he was doing. The author doesn't reveal that until much later but it's almost a necessary character detail to get in early.

      The mystery is fine and is accented by goings on in the world and how people react and change with the ever closing time of a cataclysmic strike on the Earth by a big rock. The one big negative thing I can say about the book is that I, as the reader, don't really get a hand in figuring out the mystery sooner than Palace and sometimes not even with Palace.

      The world somewhat not seen is kind of the star of the show and it feels like you're reading with tunnel vision on a medic in the middle of a big battle. Sometimes you can look around and get a seance of the scene but you're mostly focused on the thing in front of the medic.

      Overall, it was a decent story with a great premise and I would probably check out the other stories in the series. Final Grade - B
    • 3/5
      Enjoyable but not memorable. I finished this a week ago but now all I can recall was something vague about a dedicated detective solving a case that everybody else thought was suicide while the rest of the world was in a panic about approaching doom.
    • 3/5
      The book had an interesting premise but it didn't hold my attention. I could have sworn this was written by a Scandinavian author and had to constantly remind myself that this occurs in America. The horror of knowing that an asteroid was headed to earth and all would die in six months lead to a huge breakdown in communications, transportation, and of course law enforcement so trying to solve a murder was quite a challenge. And did it even matter? To Detective Hank Palace it did.
    • 5/5
      The earth has just six months till asteroid 20011GV1 will distroy everything. What would you do? For detective palace, he can't help but do his job.

      The 1st book in a 3 book seriesl I just finished World of Trouble (#3 in the series) out in June.

      A pre-apocolyptic series I never though I would read turned into three books I could Not put down.
    • 5/5
      Pssst....I have a confession to make...no...not about being an introvert. If you read my review of QUIET by Susan Cain, you would know that. No, what I really love is apocalyptic science fiction...you know ...the Earth is in danger...mankind may not make it...oops... mankind didn't make it and does not go quietly into that good night. Yep, any book that tells the story of the end I really enjoy. And writer
      Ben H. Winter has hit one out of the ballpark with the first book entitled "The Last Policeman". This a
      very smooth novel. This is the sort of book that deserves to be read slowly and re-read again. In tale he weaves, Winter shows what mankind is made of. Some folks lose it on hearing the news, others just carry on. This is a wonderful "who dun it?" and a SF dream as a cop in Concord, NH waits for the end. Hank Palace is an interesting character to hang with and I look forward to seeing what happens to him as the clock counts down.
    • 2/5
      I guess detective stories just aren't my thing. I tried to get through this book for the sake of the asteroid story, but I just hated the murder mystery part, and unfortunately that was most of it. Also the dialog sucked, but that's beside the point.
    • 3/5
      This is the first book in a trilogy and definitely sets up an intriguing "end of the world" situation. As far as the mystery is concerned, it was almost predictable, but I found it annoying when the main character determines that he has solved the murder, but then takes many more pages and even chapters to explain to the reader.
      I'll likely read the next book (though not immediately) just to follow through with the asteroid racing to hit the earth (with 100% probability) and how civilization reacts... and also because a good reader friend recommended the whole series. But I'm not sure just the mystery plot of the book would be drawing me in.
    • 3/5
      Soooo close to four stars... The rest of the series will probably pick it up, I suspect.
    • 3/5
      Detective Hank Palace decides to try and solve a murder, even if an asteroid en route towards earth may wipe out half the planet in a few months. The premise is really good - how much would you care about law and order if you have a 50/50 chance of being obliterated in six months. The story itself if decent, but the telling is a little slow and, frankly, dull. I am a reader who needs good characters to enjoy a story (in fact, can enjoy a mediocre and sometimes bad story if the characters are really great), but these characters all feel a little flat and didn't engage. I'll not continue the series.
    • 5/5
      Winters' blend of police procedural and near-future sci-fi, with a heavy dash of the apocalyptic since the world of the book is approaching its end, is masterful.The book kept me guessing, and even when I thought I knew the killer, it turned out I'd misread the motive; that added to the fact that Winters' writing is fantastic and the characters are fascinating made this a read I had a difficult time putting down, and I honestly can't wait to read the next in the series.I'd absolutely recommend this, if you're even the least bit curious.
    • 5/5
      Murder mystery set before a close-future known asteroid strike, with all the societal upheaval that it entails. Really well built plot.