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Winner of the 2013 Edgar® Award Winner for Best Paperback Original!
What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?
Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.
The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.
The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?
(Summary provided by the publisher)
Ben H. Winters is a novelist, television writer/producer, comic book writer, and creator of original audio content.
Ben’s best-selling, award-winning books include BIG TIME, GOLDEN STATE, THE QUIET BOY, and UNDERGROUND AIRLINES; the award-winning Last Policeman Trilogy (THE LAST POLICEMAN, COUNTDOWN CITY, and WORLD OF TROUBLE); two novels for young readers (THE SECRET LIFE OF MS. FINKLEMAN and THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING EVERYTHING); two parody “mash-up” novels (SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS and ANDROID KARENINA) and the cult horror novel THE BONUS ROOM (previously titled BEDBUGS).
Ben’s work for television includes work on the FX show LEGION and the historical thriller MANHUNT on AppleTV. Ben is the creator of the smash-hit CBS network drama TRACKER, which premiered after the Super Bowl in 2024.
Ben has written several Audible Originals for Audible.com, including INSIDE JOBS, Q&A, SELF HELP, STRANGER, and HITCHHIKERS (coming in March of 2025).
Ben is one of several comic-book writers involved in the ongoing anthology series CRUEL UNIVERSE, part of the revival of EC Comics from Oni Press. Ben’s first solo comic book, a three-part series called BENJAMIN, will begin publication in June of 2025.
Ben has published short stories in anthologies from the Mystery Writers of America and Akashic Books, as well as in the science-fiction magazine Lightspeed.
He has written journalism and essays for Slate, the New York Times Book Review, and the Wall Street Journal.
Among other awards and recognition, Ben has received the Edgar Award for mystery writing, the Philip K. Dick Award for science fiction, and France’s Grand Prix de l’imaginaire. He is a multiple New York Times bestseller.
Ben grew up in Maryland. He lives in Los Angeles with his family.
(Biography provided by the author)
