World of Trouble

Stubborn, earnest, self-deprecating and decent, his protagonist, Hank Palace, is a brilliantly realized character you want to follow to the very end--and beyond. --<i>San Francisco Chronicle </i> In this remarkable series, Winters creates a melancholy hybrid of crime and science fiction, managing to subvert the expectations of both genres. --<i>San Francisco Chronicle</i> Winters, a major talent, gives us the best realized world on the verge of annihilation that this reviewer has seen since Cormac McCarthy. --<i>Sci Fi Magazine </i> <i> </i> Winters' style is a slow burn....His cadence is a steady beat rather than a roller coaster, and his words sparing and simple. They will stay with you. --William O'Connor, <i>The Daily Beast</i> <i> </i> <i>World of Trouble</i> is a page turner, a book that is riveting and humane, suspenseful rather than frenetic, and moving rather than depressing; and the key to it all is our guide trough this crumbling world. Palace is a brilliant creation, the perfect hero for our eschatological age. --<i>Tor.com</i> Riveting entertainment. --<i>The A.V. Club</i> Winters' <i>World of Trouble</i> is more than a shining example of how to write about the apocalypse--it's one of the most well-written mysteries of any era...<i>World of Trouble</i> is a book you don't want to miss. --<i>Paste</i> <i> </i> That Winters can paint for us a world that is so bared-boned, raw and honest is why this is one of the best books of the year so far. --<i>The Cleveland Plain Dealer</i> <i> </i> When the trilogy races toward the end (in more than one way), you find yourself with a spark of hope for the human race, even in just spirit and soul. --<i>GeekMom</i> <i> </i> This is quality writing. --<i>Cape Cod Times <i>World of Trouble</i> demonstrates a greater confidence in the storytelling, richer supporting characters, and an ending that I wanted to both race toward and hold off as long as possible. --<i>Indianapolis Business Journal</i> <i> </i> Winters has done an excellent job. --<i>McClatchy</i> It is impossible not to love Hank and his need to try to do the right thing all the time. The bleak premise of this series could be too much, but, instead, it gives a certain clarity to the action of people who become their most real selves when the end of the world arrives. --<i>Library Journal</i> As fascinating as Winters' imagined societal breakdown can be, it's his attention to human connections--heartfelt, heroic and lethal--that really make this trilogy worth reading. <i>--Kirkus </i> A fine conclusion to a unique and compelling trilogy. --<i>Booklist</i> <b>Praise for <i>Countdown City</i></b> I always appreciate novels that have new and interesting approaches to traditional genres, and Ben H. Winters' two novels featuring Hank Palace fill the bill. --<i>Nancy Pearl</i>, NPR Winters is brilliant in conveying the ways in which people look for their best impulses but often end up as the victims of other people's most base instincts. --<i>Toronto Star</i> Don't miss this series! --<i>Sci Fi Magazine</i> Winters is a deft storyteller who moves his novel effortlessly from its intriguing setup to a thrilling, shattering conclusion. --<i>Los Angeles Review of Books</i> One of the best mysteries I've read in such a long time. --Nancy Pearl, <i>KUOW</i> Winters's work shines. --<i>Locus</i> The 'don't lose hope' ending is slam bang, setting us up for the 'final-final' installment. --<i>Florida Times-Union</i> A precise, calendar-driven doom casts a shadow over the series, a planet-killer asteroid that the Earth can't duck, making this an existential <i>policier.</i> --<i>The Sunbreak </i> A thrilling and contagious read. --<i>Fayetteville Flyer </i> Gripping. --<i>The Free Lance-Star</i> As with the first Hank Palace novel (this is volume 2 of a projected trilogy), the mystery element is strong, and the strange, preapocalyptic world is highly imaginative and also very plausible--it's easy to think that the impending end of the world might feel very much like this. Genre mash-up master Winters is at it again. --<i>Booklist</i> Through it all Palace remains a likeable hero for end times. --<i>PublishersWeekly.com</i> <b>Praise for <i>The Last Policeman</i></b> A genre-defying blend of crime writing and science fiction. -Alexandra Alter, <i>The New York Times</i> <i> </i> <i>The Last Policeman</i> books offer an appealing hybrid of the best of science fiction and crime fiction. --<i>The Washington Post</i> In his acclaimed <i>Last Policeman</i> trilogy, Masters showed off his mastery of edgy, sardonic wit -- there's nothing like an asteroid speeding toward Earth to bring out the black humor in people. --<i>Newsday </i> Sharp, funny, and deeply wise. --<i>Slate.com</i> <i> </i> Darkly intriguing. --<i>Discover</i> I'm in the middle of it and can't put the dang thing down. --<i>USA Today's Pop Candy</i> Ben Winters makes noir mystery even darker: his latest novel sets a despondent detective on a suspicious suicide case--while an asteroid hurtles toward earth. --<i>Wired.com</i> In his <i>Last Policeman</i> trilogy, for which he won both the Edgar Award and the Philip K. Dick Award, Winters took a standard science fiction trope -- the final months before an asteroid slams into Earth -- and mixed it with some of the conventions of the detective novel, imbuing his apocalyptic scenario with an extra measure of urgency and poignancy. --<i>The San Francisco Chronicle </i> Winters's writing is funny, surprisingly tender, and thoroughly human. --<i>Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine</i> Winters constructs a sturdy, functional, entertaining page-turner. --Greg Cook, <i>WBUR.org</i> I'm eager to read the other books, and expect that they'll keep me as enthralled as the first one did. --Mark Frauenfedler, <i>Boing Boing</i> <i> </i> Normally, only Stephen King and Dean Koontz can suck me into a book and not release their stranglehold until I, exhausted from lack of sleep, have turned the last page. Now [Ben Winters] has joined their ranks...<i>The Last Policeman</i> is extraordinary--as well as brilliant, surprising, and, considering the circumstances, oddly uplifting. --<i>Mystery Scene </i>