The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton (Raven, £20)
Turton’s third novel explores life, death and the point of existence itself. A dystopian race-against-time whodunnit, it is set 90 years after the world has been destroyed by a fatal fog. All that remains is a small Greek island and the half mile of sea that surrounds it, inhabited by three scientists – living to a great age thanks to advances made before the planet was engulfed – and 122 villagers. Abi, a mysterious AI voice who can read thoughts, ensures that life in the concrete ruins of the island’s old naval base is peaceful and that the villagers don’t – with the single exception of a curious woman, Emory – ask questions. When one of the scientists is killed, and the island’s defences are shut down, Emory has just 92 hours to solve the murder and save the last of humanity. This is an ambitious, compelling novel in which nothing is what it seems.
Moral Injuries by Christie Watson (W&N, £16.99)
The sins of the mothers are visited on the children in former nurse Watson’s superior medical thriller. Laura, an air ambulance doctor; Olivia, a heart surgeon at the same London hospital; and Anjali, a GP, met at medical school. They are well established in their careers, Laura and Olivia with teenage children and Anjali and her partner adopting a baby, when their shared past, in the form of a wild student party during which things went horribly wrong, threatens to overshadow the present. Old loyalties are challenged and the bonds of friendship morph into a pact of mutually assured destruction, where every choice comes with a terrible price. The three women pass the narrative baton, flipping between 1999 and the present day for a thoughtful, humane and complex examination of ambition, betrayal, moral obligation, and ethical grey areas personal and professional.
