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For Book Beginnings:
I'm staring at the insurance man and he's staring at me, two cold gray eyes behind old-fashioned tortoiseshell frames, and I'm having this awful and inspiring feeling, like holy moly, this is real, and I don't know if I'm ready, I really don't.
- p. 11
For Friday 56:
On my way out, I stop again on the threshold of Peter Zell's house, awkwardly carrying the shoebox and the photograph and the white notepad, feeling the weigh of the case and balancing it against an awkward memory: a policeman standing in the doorway of my childhood home on Rockland Road, hatless and somber, calling "Anybody home?" into the morning darkness.
- p. 56
Synopsis of The Last Policeman by Ben Winters: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?
Ok, this is a little out of my usual reading fare. It sounds like a movie already! So, what are you reading this Friday (and weekend)?