It’s time for another buddy read from Nils and Beth!

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton was a highly-anticipated book for both, and being fans of his previous work, they couldn’t wait to dive into this one. They have done their best to avoid spoilers!

Before we check out what they thought, here’s the official blurb:

Solve the murder to save what’s left of the world. Outside the island there is nothing: 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’re told by the scientists.

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. If the murder isn’t solved within 92 hours, the fog will smother the island – and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer – and they don’t even know it…

The Last Murder at the End of the World is due for release 28th March. You can pre-order your copy here

As always, let’s start with our expectations and first impressions.

Beth: This is going to be quite tricky to discuss without giving too much away! 

Nils: So difficult! If we say anything in too much detail, we’re most likely to give spoilers!

Beth: And there are so many spoilers… 

This is Stuart Turton’s third book; I absolutely loved The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, the twists and turns in it absolutely blew my mind. But despite having a copy, I’ve still not read The Devil and the Dark Water. I was going into this one very much just based off my knowledge of Turton’s debut; so I was expecting a super twisty murder mystery with a unique and unusual element to it – and I wasn’t disappointed at all. Right from the first page of the prologue, Turton lays out the mystery of this story. There’s a voice in the characters head, there’s some kind of garbled prophecy, there’s an experiment, someone is going to have to die, we just don’t know who or why, oh and there’s only so many hours until the world will end. I defy anyone not to get thoroughly sucked in by that.

Nils: I’m the opposite to Beth, whilst I have read and loved The Devil and the Dark Water, I’ve not fully read Seven Deaths because I read half of  it on my kindle and then realised for something so twisty, I needed to buy the physical copy—which I’m definitely going to do soon. However, with Turton I’m fairly confident of the author’s ability to deliver mind-bending mysteries with excellent characters and I too wasn’t disappointed. 

Beth: Mind-bending is the perfect description Nils!

Nils: From the opening few chapters we know that the world has succumbed to a black fog which has wiped out most of humanity. The only ones who remain are one hundred and twenty two villagers and three scientists who live peacefully on an idyllic island. That is until one scientist is found brutally murdered and their death causes the only defence against the fog to shut down. If that wasn’t enough their memories from the night the murder occurred have been erased. One of them is the murderer and they don’t even know it…

Now that’s how you hook a reader in!

Let’s talk about the characters. Were there any in particular that stood out to you? Any that you immediately liked or were suspicious of?

Nils: There are many perspectives throughout and an abundance of character arcs to follow, yet at no point does this become overwhelming.

Beth: We follow the story omni-presently as Abi is our narrator, and it really was so easy to follow everyone, I agree, the perspectives were handled really well.

Emory was definitely my favourite character; when we first meet her, we’re presented with this person who hasn’t been able to find her role within a community in which everyone has a role and part to play. She has a reputation for being the odd one out, the black sheep, the one who asks questions in a world in which no-one looks too closely at the rules. All these things just made me love her so much. 

Nils: I agree with Beth, Emory was definitely a character I was drawn towards immediately too. Her inquisitive nature, the way she shows her emotions more readily than the others and like you said her ability to question everything where others won’t, made me instantly intrigued by her. I also loved that Emory enjoyed reading murder mystery novels! 

I also liked Emory’s estranged daughter Clara, who’s love of research leads her to becoming an apprentice against her mother’s wishes. I was drawn to these two in particular because in the midst of this race to uncover a murderer is also the story of a mother and daughter coming to finally understand and respect one another which I thought was fantastic. 

Beth: Familial relationships were important throughout, weren’t they, but Emory and Clara’s in particular was a special one. Usually when these kinds of relationships are explored in a story, it’s the parent who needs to learn to accept their child and not foist their own expectations on them, but in Clara and Emory’s case it was a lot more mutual.

I didn’t quite know what to make of Niema; everyone loved and respected her, which made me suspicious of her, because I’m contrary like that, but she ends up being such a very complex person. The type of character it’s difficult to say whether you like or not.

We should definitely talk about Abi, too, shouldn’t we? It took us quite a while to really work out what was the deal with Abi – a voice everyone could hear in their minds that communicated with them and directed them.

Nils: We were definitely suspicious of both Niema and Abi throughout! In fact there was something quite creepy about Abi, which only heightened the more you learned about what the purpose of this voice was and what exactly it could do. Having Abi as our narrator was an absolute genius choice because you never knew what was the truth and what Abi might be manipulating you to believe! 

Beth: Yes! Turton does the whole “unreliable narrator” thing so well!

What did we make of Stuart Turton’s worldbuilding? Was it all what we were expecting? 

Beth: His worldbuilding was everything, wasn’t it! There’s been a disaster which has wiped out the entire population of the world, except for this Greek island, which at the time of the disaster was a highly-advanced laboratory. Niema is the owner of the lab, and she devised a way in which to keep the fog at bay from the island, and so the last remnants of humanity have forged a life for themselves in this small community. I loved the juxtaposition of the hints at super high-level tech they no longer had access to with the rudimentary way the villagers were now forced to live their lives, not even leaving the village too far and exploring rocky terrain as they didn’t have the medical knowledge or supplies to heal anyone who got injured. 

Nils: The worldbuilding was phenomenal. I loved Turton’s exploration of nature vs technology, both of which had its benefits and its pitfalls. Everything seems so idyllic on this island, a place of harmony, a place where the only worthy thing is to keep the island going. Sure the scientists search for the technologies used in the world before the fog destroyed them and sometimes find something worthy of restoring but the villagers needn’t worry over that, their life was one of farming, learning history and preparing for the nightly celebrations. Yet look a little deeper and the world doesn’t seem so idyllic after all. 

Beth: They’re attempting to create a utopian society, but as any classic sci-fi novel will tell you, they’re fraught with contradictions. 

Nils: Beth, there was one aspect to the villager’s life that we actually found quite beautiful, didn’t we? The fact that the villagers have a funeral before a person dies. They get to celebrate their life with their loved ones, say their goodbyes and have a feast.

Beth: I mean, it’s the book in a nutshell, isn’t it? On the face of things, you have this beautiful tradition of celebrating a life, having an opportunity to say goodbye – I particularly loved the memory lanterns, lighting your celebration with the memories of the person you’re losing. But…

Nils: How did they know when they would die? Well you’ll have to read the book to find out!  

What themes within the book did you most enjoy exploring?

Beth: The aspect of the story which drew me in most was Niema’s god-complex. As teacher and sort-of matriarch to the community, she had an authority over everyone that was interesting to explore and learn more of as more was revealed. Her insistence on eradicating violence, her sheer ego in her self-belief, that she could fundamentally change humanity, that it didn’t deserve the world through its violence and greed. 

Nils: Niema was such a complex character all round and yes I agree her god-complex was brilliantly portrayed.

For me, Niema’s character also leads us to explore another fascinating theme—the nature of humans—the traits which define us. In the backdrop we are constantly reminded of humanity’s capabilities to create, to serve various purposes and build meaningful relationships but we are also reminded of our acts of unspeakable violence and destruction. What we question is, can we ever exist without that? I loved seeing this scrutinised throughout and how this all brings us to many twists and turns. 

Without giving spoilers what did you make of Turton’s mystery? Did you enjoy discussing theories?

Beth: We were constantly messaging each other with theories, weren’t we Nils!

Nils: I think on one of your days off from work we spent the entire afternoon discussing theories on WhatsApp! 

Beth: It just felt like there was some kind of revelation, some new mystery hinted at, on every other page! We’d have to check with each other exactly where in the story we were before discussing anything, that’s how quickly the plot kept evolving. There was a lot of foreshadowing too, I really enjoyed checking back to the prophecy in the prologue as more and more of it began to make sense. I always love throwing theories out as I’m reading, and whereas there were some things I was right about in terms of the mystery of the world, I didn’t come close to solving the murder. I think that’s what’s so successful about Turton’s books, there are two types of mystery to solve here.

Nils: 100% agree. Turton’s twists are always incredible! Every time we became sure one of our theories was right, Turton would add another mystery or piece of evidence that threw us completely off. 

Beth: Yes! Just when we thought, oh ok I can see where this is going, Turton would take us down a path we hadn’t even begun to consider.

Nils: It’s an excellent novel to buddy read with someone because it was so enjoyable being able to share theories, especially with someone like Beth who is the queen at solving mysteries in books!

Beth: Ha! Not so much this time round! But you’re right, this isn’t a book to read in isolation, you’ll be bursting to talk to someone about it! It would be a great one for book clubs.

Nils: It’s also worth noting that Turton’s conclusion was very satisfying. I was not disappointed at all. 

What were your overall impressions of the book? 

Beth:  Turton’s done it again. With a book as clever as Seven Deaths, you’d think something of that nature couldn’t possibly be achieved again, but he has, and Last Murder is its own separate beast entirely from Seven Deaths. This is (yet another) incredible feat of twists and a speculative world; it’s a glorious puzzle-box of a book that will consume you. It dives deeply into the flaws of humanity, the clinical prejudice of the scientific, and the unbending confining dangers of AI. Turton is up there with the likes of Kazuo Ishiguro and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, a future classic. 

Nils: Stuart Turton has easily become one of my favourite writers. It’s not just the way his stories constantly deliver surprising and clever twists, it’s in the way he can make you really feel for his characters, whether that is loving them or loathing them. The Last Murder at the End of the World was a captivating, mind-fuckery, thought-provoking adventure from start to finish, and I absolutely loved it. 

The Last Murder at the End of the World is due for release 28th March. You can pre-order your copy here