The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

 Ambitious dystopian fiction with a complex mystery plot keeps the reader hooked.

At some point in the future, there's an island at the end of the world. Surrounding the land inhabited by 122 villagers and 3 scientists is a thick fog containing insects that destroyed everything within its path and the entire rest of the planet. Daily life on the island is simple and peaceful as the villagers work and sleep, performing any tasks delegated to them by the scientists whose leader is Neima. Every night they go to sleep promptly at curfew and exist only to provide service and self-sacrifice for their community. 

Suddenly things fall apart when one of the scientists is found dead and their murder has caused the barrier holding back the fog to fail. Now on a tight deadline to solve the murder and prevent the fog from killing them all, a brave villager, Emory, who has always questioned everything about life on the island, is delegated to solve the mystery and prevent extinction of the inhabitants. The investigation is hampered by the fact that the security failsafe on the island has done a memory wipe and no one there can remember what they were doing the night before. 

Even as the clock ticks and everyone seems to be running amok all over the island trying to figure out who did what to whom, the reader knows that somehow this is all going to be OK because otherwise this would be a really terrible story. The protagonist, Emory, is as courageous as expected and exhibits all the necessary smarts and talent to figure things out of course. So, in essence, this is a common enough plot with archetypes except that Emory and the villagers are different in a fundamental way to most heroes. 

The reason this novel resonated with me is that it was quite a puzzle full of interesting twists and turns that kept me guessing. The island was full of technology that made the place and the events unique. The writing was excellent even though the big picture was quite complicated, and I had to reread some of it just to make sure I was following. The setting and the description of the island layout and buildings, etc. also made for a great backdrop to the story line. I kept thinking this would make a great movie. 

I listened to the audiobook while also reading along with the e-book ARC provided by the publishers. I did not care for the narrator -- mostly because it was a male voice, and the main characters were primarily female and so it seemed totally out of place for the story. Plus, all the voices of the women sounded the same and done badly. I would think it wouldn't be that hard to get both a male and female narrator for an audio version of a book that would enhance the listening experience. I'm sort of new to the audiobook but I am finding more and more that the lack of dual (or more) voices creates an irritant. I finally put the audio aside and finished without it. 

I wasn't sure if I would like this or not, but I totally did. I am looking forward to hearing what others think of it. 

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre - post apocalyptic, dystopian fiction, mystery