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<\/figure>\n\nOutside the island there is the world destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island it is idyllic. 122 villagers and 3 scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they\u2019re told by the scientists.<\/p>\n
Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And they learn the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay.<\/p>\n
If the murder isn\u2019t solved within 92 hours, the fog will smother the island \u2013 and everyone on it.<\/p>\n
But the security system has also wiped everyone\u2019s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer \u2013 and they don\u2019t even know it\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Regular readers will know how much I bloody love Stuart Turton\u2019s books. First we had the intricately plotted, fabulously mind-twistingly clever and utterly brilliant The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Then we found ourselves in 1634 on the the good ship Saardam <\/em>with the world\u2019s greatest detective (albeit locked up below decks) and a growing pile of bodies in The Devil and the Dark Water<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
And now, Stuart Turton, master of the impossible murder (in book form, thank goodness), is back again with his third book, The Last Murder at the End of the World<\/em><\/strong>. <\/p>\n
One hundred and seven hours until humanity\u2019s extinction. Though most of humanity is already gone, wiped out by a mysterious fog and leaving us fully in a dystopian future where a mere 122 villagers survive on a small Greek island along with three scientists. Oh, but the island is surrounded by the same strange fog that killed everyone else. Yikes.<\/p>\n
Then one of the scientists is killed, and the defences holding the fog at bay break down. Double yikes. The book starts with ninety two hours to solve an impossible murder and save the world.<\/p>\n
Pfft. Easy.<\/p>\n
Turton has taken the locked room mystery and turned it into a locked island \u2013 there\u2019s no way on or off (and nowhere to go other than that deadly fog if you did escape). And there\u2019s Abi, the voice inside the villagers\u2019 heads which tells them what to do and how to behave. And a strange curfew each evening where everyone falls asleep at the same time, no matter where they are or what they\u2019re doing. And the curfew wiped everyone\u2019s memory from the night of the murder, so whilst everyone is technically <\/em>a suspect, no-one really has the knowledge or ability to do kill anyone. They\u2019re not even really sure what murder is, and even the murder wouldn\u2019t remember doing it.<\/p>\n
Look, it\u2019s hard to talk too much about this without spoiling things. It\u2019s brilliant, it\u2019s twisty, it plays with your perceptions and makes you question what it is to be human. It\u2019s a shorter book than the first two, but packs so much into it. Turton was already one of my favourite authors and this book merely strengthens that.<\/p>\n
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