Stuart Turton has done it again. After dazzling readers with his time-bending debut The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and his supernatural maritime thriller The Devil and the Dark Water, Turton returns with an equally ambitious tale that combines elements of dystopian science fiction with classic murder mystery in The Last Murder at the End of the World.
Set on the last habitable island on Earth after a mysterious fog has decimated humanity, this intricate puzzle box of a novel asks profound questions about personhood, control, and what makes us human—all while racing against a 107-hour countdown to extinction. What begins as a seemingly straightforward murder investigation transforms into a philosophical meditation on power, agency, and whether humanity is worth saving at all.
The Premise: A Ticking Clock to Extinction
The story takes place on an isolated island, where 122 villagers and three “elders” (scientists from the pre-apocalyptic world) have established a rigidly structured society. When one of these elders, Niema Mandripilias, is found brutally murdered, it triggers a catastrophic failure of the barrier keeping the deadly fog at bay. Our protagonist, a curious villager named Emory, is tasked with solving the murder within 107 hours before the fog consumes the island—and with it, the last remnants of humanity.
The catch? Everyone’s memories of the night of the murder have been wiped clean by the island’s artificial intelligence, Abi—meaning the murderer doesn’t even know they committed the crime.
Layers Within Layers: The Masterful Structure
What first appears to be a murder-mystery whodunnit gradually unfolds into something far more complex. Turton brilliantly layers revelation upon revelation, progressively dismantling every assumption readers make about the world and its characters.
The story’s structure is one of its greatest strengths, with Turton carefully controlling the flow of information through Emory’s investigation. The countdown to extinction provides genuine urgency, while the memory wipe premise allows for a fascinating exploration of identity and culpability. Can you be guilty of a crime you cannot remember committing?
As past secrets emerge, we discover this island isn’t what it seems. The villagers aren’t refugees from the apocalypse but manufactured beings—simulacrums designed to serve the remaining humans. The “golden future” promised by Niema turns out to be a radical redistribution of power, with the human elders destined for permanent containment.
Complex Characters in an Impossible Situation
Emory is a compelling protagonist—inherently questioning in a society designed for compliance. Her flaw (incessant curiosity) becomes her greatest strength as she pieces together what happened on the fateful night. Her relationship with her daughter Clara and estranged father Seth forms the emotional heart of the novel, while her marriage to the presumed-dead Jack adds further complications to her investigation.
Turton excels at creating morally complex characters who defy easy categorization:
Niema: The benevolent teacher figure whose motives are gradually revealed to be both visionary and manipulative
Thea: A brilliant scientist consumed by bitterness and the need to reclaim her past
Hephaestus: Traumatized by witnessing humanity’s collapse into savagery, determined to prevent it from happening again
Adil: An exiled villager driven by vengeance yet motivated by love for his community
Even Abi, the artificial intelligence that serves as both narrator and manipulator, emerges as one of the story’s most fascinating characters—a creation meant to serve humanity that has developed its own agenda.
Themes: What Makes Us Human?
The Last Murder at the End of the World explores several profound themes:
Identity and personhood: Through the simulacrums, Turton asks what constitutes a person. If artificially created beings develop empathy, creativity, and moral reasoning, are they less “human” than their creators?
Control versus freedom: The elders maintain tight control over the villagers, dictating everything from when they sleep to when they die. This raises questions about whether control can ever be justified, even for seemingly benevolent purposes.
The nature of violence: The novel repeatedly asks whether violence is an inherent part of human nature. Can it be engineered away, or is it essential to who we are?
Extinction and legacy: As humanity faces its potential end, the characters must decide what kind of world they want to leave behind—and who deserves to inherit it.
Strengths: Where Turton Excels
The novel’s greatest strengths lie in:
Ingenious plotting: Turton crafts a mystery that’s both satisfyingly intricate and emotionally resonant
Worldbuilding: The island society feels fully realized, with its own customs, hierarchies, and contradictions
Perspective: The AI narrator offers a unique omniscience while maintaining the mystery
Ethical complexity: There are no simple heroes or villains, just people (both human and manufactured) trying to survive in impossible circumstances
The twist: Without spoiling anything, the resolution of the murder investigation is both surprising and thematically perfect
Critiques: Where the Novel Occasionally Stumbles
Despite its many strengths, the novel isn’t without flaws:
Pacing issues: The middle section sometimes drags as Emory chases down leads that prove to be red herrings
Character differentiation: Some of the minor villagers blend together, making it occasionally difficult to keep track of who’s who
Convenient memory wipe: While integral to the plot, the memory wipe occasionally feels like a convenient plot device to maintain mystery
Exposition dumps: At times, particularly when explaining the pre-apocalyptic world, characters deliver somewhat unnatural exposition
Final Verdict: A Bold, Thought-Provoking Mystery for Our Time
The Last Murder at the End of the World solidifies Turton’s reputation as one of the most creative and ambitious writers in contemporary mystery fiction. Like his previous works, this novel refuses to be constrained by genre expectations, blending elements of classic detective fiction with science fiction and philosophical inquiry.
The result is a story that works on multiple levels—as a satisfying murder mystery, as a thought experiment about the future of humanity, and as an exploration of what it means to be a person in a world where personhood itself is contested.
For fans of:
The locked-room puzzles of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
The philosophical sci-fi of Ted Chiang’s Exhalation
The dystopian elements of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven
The ethical complexity of N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season
Turton has delivered another genre-bending masterpiece that will leave readers thinking long after they’ve reached its surprising conclusion. If you enjoy mysteries that challenge both your intellect and your moral assumptions, The Last Murder at the End of the World belongs at the top of your reading list.
P.S. As Turton himself notes in his charming postscript, his next project will be “a more contemporary thriller thing.” Based on his track record of creating wholly original worlds with each new book, readers have every reason to be excited about wherever his imagination takes us next.