World of Trouble – Ben H Winters

Title – World of Trouble

Author – Ben H Winters

Published – 15 July 2014 (but not until 15 August in the UK)

Genre – Crime fiction / apocalyptic fiction / pre-apocalyptic crime fiction

So this is it – the final instalment. Any feelings of anticipation I had for this third and final book in the Last Policeman trilogy have been tinged with dread as I know that, whatever the outcome, I must say goodbye to Hank and Horatio.

When the book opens there are just 14 days left until asteroid Maia is due to hit the Earth. Hank has left the safety of the group at the Police House and is on the road for his final case – to find out what has happened to his sister Nico.  I know that it’s this search that keeps him going, gives him some purpose in the final days, but it’s also clear that this coping strategy is really the equivalent of sticking your head under a pillow and hoping the whole asteroid thing will go away.

The crime thread of the story centres around Hank’s efforts to locate Nico and his attempts to explain the situation he finds at the Ohio police station that is the rendezvous point at which he hoped to find her. As less and less technology and resources become available to him he has to draw on every (brief) moment of training he had to collect and analyse evidence, administer first aid, negotiate with armed opponents. Despite the ‘race against time’ dimension that the meteor provides there’s still a mystery to solve, moments of peril for our hero and a few ‘aha!’ moments for those who read the preceding books.

This is a book (and series) where first person, present tense, really works, drawing you into Hank’s life and the immediacy of the problem he faces. Winters’ writing is, as ever, excellent – despite his sparse prose you really get a picture of the environment that Hank and Horatio encounter. Although Winters still manages to inject some humour into the story it remains both poignant and thought-provoking (pretty much true for the whole series). What would you do, what would you care about? There is one particular quote about death and loss that will stay with me.

For once I can safely say that this is not a book that can stand on its own. There is too much you would miss out on, too many subtleties which would be lost. In another universe this was probably published as one long book, and part of the charm for this reader has been the anticipation, the wait for another year to find out what happens next. Anyway – would you read The Return of the King without reading the preceding two volumes? No? Well the same is true here – read the series.

I hope that I won’t give anything away by saying that the book brought a tear to my eye (a couple of times) and I think that Winters gave Hank the ending that he deserved. Whilst I can’t help but be disappointed that this is the end  – I do look forward to whatever venture Winters undertakes next.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy. You can see another point of view over at Eamo the Geek.