The premise of The Last Policeman: A Novel is pretty interesting: the world is doomed (they’re expecting an asteroid hit in six months, on at least a Chicxulub-level), and society is only functioning out of a more or less automatic reflex. But there’s still a police detective; and he’s still got a suicide case to clear that just doesn’t feel quite right…
Pretty good stuff; the author (Ben Winters) also did Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, which I liked a bit more than some folks did. It’s a pretty dang grim hard-boiled police procedural – not surprising, given the premise – but with a terse philosophical message throughout. For three bucks on Kindle it’s well worth your time; interestingly, it’s also apparently going to be the first of three books in the trilogy – which is probably unlikely to bloat. I mean: given said premise, I’m not sure that the author will be able to squeeze in a fourth…