The Last Detective
Ratings1
Average rating5
..".I rate it as a superior novel and recommend it to anyone who appreciates the challenge of an unflinching mystery. Certainly I was repeatedly surprised." - Multiple NYT bestselling author Piers Anthony It's been two years since the invasion. Two years since the slicks came to our planet and herded humanity together like cattle, placing us under constant watch in the few cities that remain. The lucky ones are left to their own devices. The unlucky few are rounded up and carted off to labor camps to face an unknown fate. Former homicide detective Adrian Grace was cut off from his family, but has somehow managed to survive. When one of the slicks is murdered, they ask him to find the killer. He reluctantly agrees, and in the course of his investigation witnesses the best, and the worst, that humanity has to offer: a plot to escape the labor camps; a pending war between an in-your-face councilwoman and the corrupt city mayor; and a priest who claims to have befriended the dead alien. But worst of all, he stumbles onto a conspiracy that puts the fate of the entire city in jeopardy. In the end, Detective Grace discovers that the killer might just be the last person he would have suspected. A story about betrayal, redemption, faith, fear, and hope, The Last Detective is a thrilling look at what happens to humanity when our world crumbles around us.
Tags
Genre
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/review/RAIA5O0GKV6Z1/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Alien Invasion/Mystery Mash-up
Adrian Grace was working as a police detective in an unnamed city when the aliens arrived with their massive spaceships. Humanity fought back and lost big. Confined to their cities, which serve as ghettoes, and periodically drafted into labor battalions by human collaborators, things are not looking bright for mankind. In the midst of a radically changed world, Grace is called back to work to investigate the murder of an alien.
This story works as a mystery. The problem is set and clues are laid out for Grace to follow. Red-herrings are dragged across the trail, and the denouement has its surprises.
The story works less satisfactorily as a science fiction story, but, perhaps, I expect more from my science fiction. For example, I wanted to know more about the “slicks” and the “labor camps.” Obviously, the story is not really about either subject, but it was an itch I wanted scratched.
Likewise, there was a religious subtext in the book. Grace has a name with a religious connotation, but he is an atheist former Catholic, and the story features a religious sect known as the “abandoned,” who preach that God has abandoned humanity to its fate. The story references an alien's interest in St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica. Ultimately, the religious subtext goes nowhere, although there is an interesting revelation that could have been used for greater effect.
I was impressed with this first book by author Brian Cohn on its own before I knew that Cohn has a full-time job as a doctor. The fact that he wrote a book of this quality with that background simply seasoned my appreciation of the book.
