The Last

As a tale of (largely) middle class people bought together after a catastrophe, it's hard not to liken this to a John Wyndham novel or, more contemporarily, Station Eleven. Which is handy, as those are two of my favourites. This has a little bit more grit than either of those comparisons, with more emphasis on the stress and psychological trauma of living in such uncertain times. It's claustrophobic as well, with almost all the action confined to one location, and a pervading fear of the outside.

I enjoyed this a lot. It's not perfect - the murder mystery element feels a bit perfunctory at times, and the ending comes up very quickly, after a plot development that could have seen another few hundred pages added to the story - but it's a good, fast, gripping read.