Countdown city

For those who haven't read The Last Policeman (2012), here's what you need to know: the world is doomed. An asteroid is going to smash into the planet earth in the very near future. Society is in disarray. A lot of people have already checked out, via suicide or just vanishing entirely. Law and order is more of an idea than a practical reality. Hank Palace is a police officer—well, he used to be, before the police department was shut down a few months ago. Now, like most people, he's unemployed. When an old friend asks him to find her missing husband, Hank reluctantly agrees. But how do you find a missing person when half the people in the country aren't where they're supposed to be? As with the first Hank Palace novel (this is volume 2 of a projected trilogy), the mystery element is strong, and the strange, pre-apocalyptic world is highly imaginative and also very plausible—it's easy to think that the impending end of the world might feel very much like this. Genre mash-up master Winters is at it again. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

Hank Palace, protagonist of the Edgar Award-winning The Last Policeman, returns in this sequel, set 77 days before an asteroid will destroy Earth. Things have gotten worse in New Hampshire: Hank has been fired since all police work has been federalized, his sister is still running with a group that claims that it's all a government conspiracy and only they can save the world, and an old family friend asks him to find her husband. Hank reluctantly agrees, but with so many people dropping out to pursue their bucket lists and no telephones or electricity, it won't be easy. VERDICT Winters has written another complex mystery with plenty of possible motives, suspicious characters, and rich details of a society slowly coming apart, although the local library remains open, of course, staffed by its dedicated librarians and volunteers. As the end nears for Hank and the rest of the world, he struggles to find both the missing husband and a reason to keep looking. Anyone who enjoyed Winters's previous novel will like this outing, as will other readers interested in a good mystery in an innovative setting.—Dan Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green [Page 89]. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In this sequel to Edgar Award-winning The Last Policeman, Winters intensifies his vision of a lawless apocalyptic society as an asteroid nicknamed "Maia" continues its deadly trajectory toward Earth. Impact: October 3rd. Seventy-seven days from when the narrative picks up. Set in Concord, N.H., where the police force is fraying and money has no value, people are frantically fleeing the Eastern Hemisphere to seek refuge from Maia's direct path, amidst hundreds of U.S. citizens who are simply disappearing. Narrator and straight-laced detective Hank Palace has lost his job, but he still can't resist helping his childhood babysitter Martha Cavatone locate her missing husband. With the end of the world nigh—and a bike as his only mode of transportation—this is no easy task. Clues lead Palace to a colonization of radicals who've overtaken the University of New Hampshire and followed by a forsaken coastal fort used to execute catastrophe immigrants as they approach the shore. While not as well paced or marvelously original as its predecessor, this second installment in a planned trilogy is darker, more violent and more oppressive. Through it all Palace remains a likeable hero for end times, and with Concord already in ruins, readers are left to wonder how he'll survive to tell his final tale. (July) [Page ]. Copyright 2013 PWxyz LLC

In this sequel to Edgar Award-winning The Last Policeman, Winters intensifies his vision of a lawless apocalyptic society as an asteroid nicknamed "Maia" continues its deadly trajectory toward Earth. Impact: October 3rd. Seventy-seven days from when the narrative picks up. Set in Concord, N.H., where the police force is fraying and money has no value, people are frantically fleeing the Eastern Hemisphere to seek refuge from Maia's direct path, amidst hundreds of U.S. citizens who are simply disappearing. Narrator and straight-laced detective Hank Palace has lost his job, but he still can't resist helping his childhood babysitter Martha Cavatone locate her missing husband. With the end of the world nigh—and a bike as his only mode of transportation—this is no easy task. Clues lead Palace to a colonization of radicals who've overtaken the University of New Hampshire and followed by a forsaken coastal fort used to execute catastrophe immigrants as they approach the shore. While not as well paced or marvelously original as its predecessor, this second installment in a planned trilogy is darker, more violent and more oppressive. Through it all Palace remains a likeable hero for end times, and with Concord already in ruins, readers are left to wonder how he'll survive to tell his final tale. (July) [Page ]. Copyright 2013 PWxyz LLC

Losing his job in the wake of an asteroid collision that is set to decimate the planet in 74 days, Detective Hank Palace agrees to help a woman from his past find her missing husband in a world that is rapidly descending into apocalyptic chaos. By the Edgar Award-nominated author of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Original.

Set three months before a deadly asteroid is due to hit Earth, this Last Policeman sequel chronicles the further adventures of Hank Palace. The Concord Police Department is now operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, and Hank is outof a job-until he's hired by a business tycoon to help find the man's estranged son. It isn't long before Hank's missing-person case turns into a murder investigation.

Having lost his job in the wake of an imminent asteroid collision, Detective Hank Palace agrees to help a woman from his past find her missing husband in a world that is rapidly descending into apocalyptic chaos.

“A genre-defying blend of crime writing and science fiction.”—Alexandra Alter, The New York TimesDetective Hank Palace returns in the second in the speculative mystery trilogy set on the brink of the apocalypse and winner of the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award. There are just 77 days before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days of solving crimes are over...until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband. Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace—an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone’s gone “bucket list” or just gone. With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off “impact zone” refugees. Countdown City presents another fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse--and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond "whodunit." What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?

“A genre-defying blend of crime writing and science fiction.”—Alexandra Alter, The New York TimesDetective Hank Palace returns in the second in the speculative mystery trilogy set on the brink of the apocalypse. There are just 77 days before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days of solving crimes are over...until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband. Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace—an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone’s gone “bucket list” or just gone. With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off “impact zone” refugees. Countdown City presents another fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse--and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond "whodunit." What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?