The Last Murder at the End of the World

 The Last Murder at the End of the World, was on and off my to read list before I settled in and followed through.  Boy am I glad I did!  It started out slowly and definitely has that sci fi feel that is not my favorite genre, but I kept at it and it turns out to be a great novel with mystery, intrigue, and social commentary.

The plot follows a small group of people who inhabit an island off the coast of Greece after we humans have destroyed the planet.  These are the last survivors who have managed to keep back the dark fog that enveloped the earth and killed all living life forms.  Now there are three scientists and one and twenty villagers living a life of harmony and peace.  New children are brought to parents and everyone dies at age sixty celebrating their lives the night before they die.  There is a nightly curfew and everyone goes to sleep at the same time. During the day people farm, fish and celebrate.  The young people go to school and become apprentices. 

It is a utopia until one of the scientists is killed and now everyone is trying to figure out who among them could be the killer.  The security system surrounding the island has been triggered and now the fog around the island is starting to close in.  The world could be coming to the end if the killer is not identified and killed within the allotted time.

The Last Word

 Written by Elly Griffiths, this is a delightful entertaining mystery story with a elderly gentleman as a detective and his young friends.  The Last Word brings us back to the team of Edwin an eighty year old man who is looking for excitement and things that give his life meaning, Benedict, a former monk who has given up his life of religion to be in relationship with Natlaka, a young woman who is a Ukrainian refugee in England.  Edwin and Natlaka run the amateur detective agency and they get a good juicy murder case.  Benedict runs the local coffee cafe.

When authors start dying, they question becomes are deaths are from natural causes or murder.  This book takes our characters through a series of experiences as they try to find connections between the authors and their deaths.  Where have their lives overlapped and who might know all the victims.

The plot is very current and refers to both Covid and the Ukraine war.  Natlaka has brought her mother out of Ukraine but her brother has gone back to fight so they are always worrying about him.  So that adds a more complicated plot.  Also it distracts and teases the reader as they try to discover the killer.

Sandwich

 Sandwich, by Catherine Newman is a short sweet novel that was about just what I thought it would be about...and that is not food.   I am now going through the true meaning of the sandwich generation... needing to help your parent on one side and wanting to help and spend time with your grown children on the other side.  you are squeezed in the middle.

This book did not tell the story to the extreme that I am feeling lately, but it was a delightful read.  A simple story of a family on summer vacation on The Cape.  The son and daughter are now young adults, the mother is reminiscing as they spend the week on vacation about the previous years they have spent at this same rental. Flash backs to their childhood.  The children also have certain traditions they still like to do together that repeat year after year.  The grandparents also come to visit for a night and the family becomes more aware of the passing time and how they are all aging.  There is suggestions of the end of life and how we all struggle with the changing dynamics.

There are a few wonderful quotes in the book that I want to remember:

Talking about how much fun it is to sepend time with grown kids...  "But this? These grown kids, after your own life has grown so quiet?...The kids who shake cocktails and fry squid and drive to the corn stand and tell funny stories about the kombucha tap at work? I had no idea it would be this good. If you'd shown us videos of this while we were still squatting on the beach comforting a crying someone about the sand having a shrimp smell? We would never have believed you."

another quick one.. about the way kids remember the past...  Remember the year you told me to stop worrying about my flip flops?  ..You told me to leave them at the bottom of the path, you said, Nobody's going to steal your flip flops."  "Yes, I did say that."  "And what happened?"  "Someone stole your flip flops."    We call this style of childhood nostalgia the catalogue of grievances.