A small-town cop grows to believe that a suicide at a local fast-food restaurant might have actually been murder; but as a giant asteroid is coming to destroy the Earth, nobody much cares but him in Ben H. Winters' genre-bender Countdown City.
A strange mash-up indeed, as if Philip Marlowe washed up in Nevil Shute's On The Beach, and bumped in to Lew Archer. Countdown City is a very philosophical entry in the apocalyptic genre and a cracking mystery to boot, topped with a harrowing ending (and it's not the world blowing up, this is the first of a trilogy).
This is the book I find myself recommending to everyone this season, joining The Dog Stars, Night Film, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as my recommendations to people who just enjoy good reads.
I bought this in paperback sight unseen because of a recommendation from a friend (who happens to be the cousin of the author), and was sufficiently floored enough to pass it around to several others when I was done. Suffice to say, recommended.
A strange mash-up indeed, as if Philip Marlowe washed up in Nevil Shute's On The Beach, and bumped in to Lew Archer. Countdown City is a very philosophical entry in the apocalyptic genre and a cracking mystery to boot, topped with a harrowing ending (and it's not the world blowing up, this is the first of a trilogy).
This is the book I find myself recommending to everyone this season, joining The Dog Stars, Night Film, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as my recommendations to people who just enjoy good reads.
I bought this in paperback sight unseen because of a recommendation from a friend (who happens to be the cousin of the author), and was sufficiently floored enough to pass it around to several others when I was done. Suffice to say, recommended.
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