To avoid a TL/DR review, here’s a bullet list of my likes and dislikes:

What I liked most:
• The world-building, the combination of dystopian science fiction, mystery, and anthropological exploration of what makes someone human. There were sprinkles of similarities to Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and Michel Faber's The Book of Strange New Things, and that was delightful.
• The imaginative culture of a small group of people on an isolated Greek island at the end of the world was instantly immersive.

What I liked al little less:
• The deus ex machina that kept rescuing the story.
• The mystery (also on my “like” list, which is a paradox). I don’t mind mystery novels, and sometimes even enjoy them, but they are often a long climb for a short slide, and this book is one of those. You get hint after hint, twist after twist, and then wham-o at the end with the monologue exposition of how it all fits together. By then I was confused and honestly just mentally exhausted to the point that I didn’t care anymore. It's just me, so your experience might be different.

I would have enjoyed this more as a straight novel, even with a thriller bent, than a convoluted whodunit. The imagination Turton displays in developing not only the end of the world but the society who lives in it was impressive.

If you’re a Turton fan, I would recommend you give it a go, but if you’re new to Turton, start with Evelyn Hugo or Devil in the Dark Water. Despite my misgivings about his latest, I will definitely read whatever he comes up with next. His works knot by brain in the best way.

Many thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

What's left of humanity has retreated to an island after a terrible, vicious fog devoured every living thing in its path, Villagers and Elders live together in peace, Emory's insatiable curiosity and questioning nature notwithstanding. After one of them is found dead in what is poorly disguised as an accident, residents of humanity's last outpost must discover and surrender the murderer among them. If they do not, the fog will be unleashed and humanity will be wiped out once and for all. Told from multiple perspectives, this tale is great for fans of twisty mysteries, world-building, and apocalyptic fiction.

A deadly fog has engulfed the world, except for one small island where the last of humanity shares a peaceful, ordered existence.

But of course nothing is ever that simple.

Stuart Turton is a master at immersing readers in atmosphere and setting. I felt like I was there on that island, watching the fog swirl in the distance.

The plot unfolds at a steady pace, gradually building in intensity. Characters are complex individuals. And I don’t want to say anything more, aside from I loved every moment.

*I received an eARC from Sourcebooks Landmark, via NetGalley, and a print ARC from a BookishFirst giveaway.*

I like everything about the setup of this dystopian/science fiction/suspense novel, but I ended up unsatisfied. Somewhere just before halfway through, a major twist changed things for me, causing me to have to force my way through massive, continual amounts of exposition to the rather unsurprising conclusion. It’s a fresh and unique story, but just not as well handled as I would like. Having Abi the AI force behind the island narrate the story was problematic to me on several levels. Readers seem to either love this book or end up feeling like I did, not emotionally involved with the characters or story. I’m grateful to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read the prepubescent digital ARC.

A dystopian post apocalyptic world the culprit being a deadly fog that has left 123 survivors and 3 scientists on a protected island. All seems copacetic until one of the scientists the oldest and most brilliant is found murdered. The always curious Emory aided by her daughter are tasked the solving the murder -within 96 hours.
The book is narrated by by an AI voice which was new for me.
There are numerous twists and turns and multiple complex scientific inventions not to my knowledge existent.
SO-fantasy, dystopia, murder-all carefully incorporated.
Personally I had a difficult time with the AI concept but a good read.

SPOILER: I usually don't do spoilers in reviews - ever. But I don't even know how to talk about this book without a little spoiler. Not necessarily to the heart of the mystery, but definitely something that is not revealed until much later on. So here it is, don't read on if you don't want it spoiled for you... I just didn't get it. If the people on the island are AI, then they should not have had complex feelings and the ability to love? I was so lost by that. And maybe I'm wrong and don't know enough about AI? But when it was like the elders were heartless for believing they were "things." Well, they are right? I mean, they didn't seem like things because of the aforementioned feelings, etc. But they don't have souls? I don't know it just left me feeling very conflicted. Aside from that whole issue the book moved very slowly at times for a book that is set over the course of a couple days where the world is ending. So I definitely had ups and downs with this book. Toward the end it picked up more and the mystery was solved and I appreciated how all the loose ends came together.

The Last Murder at the End of the World is a dystopian ride of a story. It all takes place on an island where humans and non humans live. It took me a bit to find my way with this story. It was pretty good, not great, or maybe just not my cup of tea. I do appreciate the clear and concise writing of the author, just not the subject matter

This is a whirlwind of a book, with interesting plot twists along the way. I loved the memorable characters and the setting was just so unique.

A satisfying dystopian tale about the end of humanity and its reaction to the fog plaguing the earth. Not my favorite Turton book, felt absurdly descriptive and almost not descriptive at the same time. Felt like a word count had to be met. I did enjoy the ending as predictable as it seemed.

I have loved Stuart ‘s two other books but this one didn’t do it for me. It felt very slow, and while the last third did pick up, it still wasn’t as good as his other two.

I've read several reviews of this book and I must be an outlier.

Based on the description of the book I should have liked this more. The premise is the kind of thing I typically enjoy. Dystopian future ✅ Murder mystery ✅ AI narrator ✅ Mysterious island ✅

If you are a fan of Stuart Turton's other books or if you like highly complicated murder mysteries that leave you confused instead of guessing, you might find this one enjoyable.

Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. Either the pace was too slow, or the book was overall too long. It took so long to get to the reveal that I stopped caring altogether. Even by the end when "all is revealed" I still don't understand everyone's role in what happened. While I enjoy AIs in novels and enjoy AI narrators, this particular AI narrator was distracting. Every time she suddenly interjected in the narrative it completely jolted me out of the novel. While she is supposed to be narrating the entire thing, many portions don't feel like the AI narrator at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advance digital copy in return for my honest opinion.

Turton has done it again!
In his latest installment, we’re transported to a post-apocalyptic universe plagued by “the fog”, a mysterious agent that has wiped out virtually the entire planet as we know it. The last of humanity, 122 villagers led by 3 scientists known eerily as “the elders” are left behind to pick up the pieces of what’s left of humanity. After the mysterious murder of the most beloved elder, the villagers have only 92 hours to find her murderer or succumb to the fate of the fog and the annihilation of the human race.
The duality of the sci-fi world building paired with the classic tropes of a whodunnit murder mystery play together in a way that makes this story so unique. Combined with the creative way Turton implements the plot device of amnesia, we as the readers are constantly guessing, and the countdown to the world’s end adds a sense of urgency that makes this book impossible to put down.
Thank you NetGalley and sourcebooks for sharing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Thanks to Netgalley & SOURCEBOOKS- Landmark for access to this E-ARC! Very interesting storyline & characters. Never read a book like this one! Definitely will watch the show!

I was so excited to read a murder mystery and the twists and turns in it were amazing. I was hooked after the first few chapters as I wanted to know more about the island and found Emory to be so enchanting.

To give a quick summary, a scientist has been murdered and that has trigged the deathly fog to unleash onto the island with only so much time to stop it. The only way to stop it is by finding the murderer, getting a confession, and killing them. Problem is no one has any memory of the murder. Emory is the only one to try to solve it. Will she though???

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Just the amount of weirdness I expect from Stuart Turton. This one was a bit different than his past books IMO because the supernatural elements were a bit easier to understand, more sci fi than magical. The AI was quite interesting, particularly how it interacted with the various characters. I look forward to the next book.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BRAIN?

This took me way longer to get into. I'm talking... I almost DNF within the first pages because I wasn't jiving with a single thing. Maybe my brain stopped working because I was so lost with the sentence structure and way this author wrote. Yes, this is my first book by him, but wow.

I will admit I skimmed a lot just to get it over with. I wanted to know what happened but I also didn't want to read this anymore. Make sense? It's an okay murder mystery, but the leisurely pace was killing me. Set in a near-future world threatened by a killer fog on a tropical island, the story, labeled a ticking-clock mystery, involves a slow trek through extensive world-building before hitting the anticipated climax. All in all, just okay.

This was an enjoyable, propulsive read with some excellent creepy moodiness that ultimately failed to stick the landing in my mind.

Stuart Turton creates puzzle box novels, where there's a lot of plotting going on and a lot to figure out. This can be really compelling, especially since he packages those things to figure out in such a way that you really want to figure them out. However, this does mean that the strength of the mystery can end up living and dying on the strength of the overall explanation, and those explanations can sometimes seem like they're coming from a different world to the rest of the novel. With The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, that was more or less fine, as all that really mattered was that there was some sort of explanation to justify the time loop mechanics; with The Devil and the Dark Water that explanation felt of the same world as the rest of the book. My problem with The Last Murder at the End of the World is that it didn't work nearly so well for me: I was able to guess the whodunnit from more or less the first chapter, but there was no way that I was ever going to guess some of the other twists because they relied on expository worldbuilding that was simply impossible to guess at. The last few chapters that explained these things devolved into the sort of "detective explains the mystery" trope that I don't always mind, but that felt somewhat unsatisfying in comparison.

Why, then, did I tear through this in about a day of active reading? Because the mood of the book along the way was impeccable, the characters were interesting, the prose was nice, and it was genuinely propulsive as all hell. All of the above structural complaints are things that have an impact on my overall judgement of the book structurally, but they weren't reasons not to read it, just reasons not to reread it.

A wild ride that keeps you guessing up until the end. Even though the basic premise is out there, you feel for the characters and want to see them survive. A possible peek into a future kind of life.

Ever race to finish reading a book not because it is a page turner but because you just want to end the damn thing? Sure you have. And chances are, you will again. Especially if you read Stuart Turton’s third novel, The Last Murder at the End of the World, which is a totally fine murder mystery unfortunately set at a much-too leisurely pace. And oh yeah, there is a decent-sized spoiler right there in the Table of Contents.

Set in the somewhat near future, a killer fog is beset upon mankind. Alas, not one full of cool John Carpenter ghost pirates, either. The last outpost of civilization resides on a tropical island. Life continues. Until! Someone is killed! And then? Everyone’s memories of the night before are conveniently erased (remember: set in the near future, so just go with it).

The Last Murder at the End of the World is billed as a clicking clock mystery as the killer fog (but the one without ghostly pirates) comes ever closer to wiping out the last of humanity. To get to that countdown, however, Turton fishes through an ocean-full of world building.

Turton’s debut, The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, was an elegant murder mystery that indeed had you guessing from that first jump. Turton allowed the reader to get closer to the characters and to guessing the mystery as the story progressed. He reverses course here, supplying the reader with a Wikipedia entry’s worth of info on Emory the villager, Niema the teacher, the elders, their daily rituals, the mechanics of the cable car, and biometric AI. Then – and only then – he presents the murder.

And here? The actual case of the murder? One does not need to be Hercule Poirot to figure out who to point the blame on.

Turton does have some fun reveals along the way. He gets into the makeup of the island as well as the intricacies of that dark deed. Yet for all the talk of world ending urgency, none of the characters react that way. But maybe that’s the laid back island life for you.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for thinking of me and sending on over the ARC. This pairs nicely with a mai tai. And a John Carpenter soundtrack.

Stuart Turton does not disappoint. 7 1/2 Deaths is one of my favorite reads, and it's hard to not compare the two novels when reading this new one. They both have a murder to solve, they both have characters dealing with memory loss while at the same time trying to piece together the events behind this murder, and they both have a time crunch to solve the murder in. Plus they both happen at Blackheath. While both novels are wildly original the two big reveals are equally interesting, but my vote is for 7 1/2 Deaths being my favorite. Murder at the End of the World is very unique and well written, the book has the right amount of tension between the protagonist and antagonist, which can make the reader shake their book in complete frustration. My one criticism would be that the facts are reviewed back to the reader from the MC one or two too many times. The book isn't so long that you would be forgetting things and need to be reminded of them. I could've done with less of those reminders to help move the pace of the story along a little more. Overall, this is an original engaging fun read, and another win for Turton.