Our dear friends at Quirk Publishers are repackaging Ben H. Winters’ award-winning THE LAST POLICEMAN trilogy in time for the release of his new novel, GOLDEN STATE (Mulholland/Little Brown), releasing January 22. Love, love, love these new, very commercial covers. Most of all, I appreciate the willingness of a publisher to keep re-inventing; alas, this is not always the case. Thanks especially to Brett Cohen and Jhanteigh Kupihea.
Stuff in the ‘Countdown City’ Category
Ben H. Winters’ THE LAST POLICEMAN trilogy–with all new covers!
Preorder WORLD OF TROUBLE, Ben H. Winter!
Kirkus Reviews praises Ben H. Winters’ WORLD OF TROUBLE
World of Trouble, by Ben H. Winters (July):
Winters leapt boldly into the intersection between speculative fiction and crime fiction with his Edgar Award–winning 2012 novel, The Last Policeman, which imagined a rookie detective in New Hampshire, Hank Palace, still trying to clear his caseload—even as an asteroid threatens to destroy life on Earth within six months. He followed that with Countdown City(2013), and now delivers the final installment in his trilogy, World of Trouble. With a mere two weeks to go before impact, and anarchy reigning, Palace sets off from New England to Ohio in search of his sister, Nico, who may have joined a contingent of radicals hoping to alter the asteroid’s course. His path leads to an abandoned police station, where the clues to untangling a brutal assault might also answer questions about his sibling’s fate. 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.
Read of the Week: COUNTDOWN CITY, Ben H. Winters

Countdown City presents another fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse–and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond “whodunit.” What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?
“…gripping…”—The Free Lance-Star“… Winters’s work shines.”—Locus“Don’t miss this series!”—Sci Fi magazine
“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.”—Booklist
COUNTDOWN CITY, Ben H. Winters
The Last Policeman received the 2013 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original–along with plenty of glowing reviews.
Now Detective Hank Palace returns in Countdown City, the second volume of the Last Policeman trilogy. There are just 77 days before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank’s days of solving crimes are over…until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband.
Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace—an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone’s gone “bucket list” or just gone. With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off “impact zone” refugees.
Countdown City presents another fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse–and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond “whodunit.” What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?
“… Winters’s work shines.”—Locus
“Don’t miss this series!”—Sci Fi magazine