This was a group read for SFF Book Club this month. I was pleasantly surprised. It started off a little rough- something about the writing didn't sit well with me although it seems many others enjoyed the writing so maybe it's just me. 
 This is a mystery plot with a twist- the world is going to be struck by a giant asteroid in about six months. Life on planet Earth is ending. It was refreshing to read a book about what happens before the apocalypse instead of after. The asteroid was also a seemingly plausible explanation for it. 
 We get to see how society devolves as it comes closer and closer to the end. People quit their jobs to work on their bucket lists. The economy collapses. Suicide rates spike. Crime rates spike. What little of the police force is left can't keep up with it. 
 In steps Detective Hank Palace to save the day (well, as much as a day can be saved when the apocalypse is coming). Palace only ever wanted to be a policeman. After 14 weeks (I think) on patrol, he's promoted to Detective. The Concord NH PD can't keep up with the number of detectives they are losing to the Bucket List. Hank is mostly called to suicide scenes. There isn't a lot for him to investigate, and new laws have declared that obvious suicides should no longer be investigated. But when Palace is called to the scene to investigate a hanger, something doesn't sit right with him, and against the wishes and directives of his colleagues and superiors, he decides to investigate. 
 The mystery here was average. I didn't feel like it was ground breaking or filled with twists and turns. It wasn't a bad mystery by any means, it just didn't feel like it brought anything new to the table. 
 I enjoyed everything else. Watching the world around Palace crumble to pieces. Seeing how Palace himself coped. Hearing the bits and pieces about the asteroid, and how the world suggested they deal with it. There is a subplot regarding Hank's sister Nico and a secret government agency that really sucked me in, and I will probably pick up the next two books in the trilogy at some point to see how that plays out. 
 I liked Palace as a character. He's sort of an average Joe. His head is glued on very straight. He seems like the only one not panicking about the asteroid. His attitude is: I can't do anything to stop it, I may as well just carry on with my day. He isn't equipped with anything more than his will to persist and keen instincts, and in fact sometimes even those prove to be wrong. 
 This was a light, easy read that I would recommend to fans of the genre.