Book Review: The Last by Hanna Jameson

Post-apocalyptic murder mystery. That’s the hook of The Last and the combination had me intrigued although I’m not generally drawn to murder mysteries. But the unique setting of a remote Swiss hotel immediately following nuclear war had me intrigued.

Jon Keller is an American academic, staying at the Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland for a conference. He left his wife and kids back in San Francisco and didn’t leave things in a good place with his wife. One morning at breakfast, headlines suddenly appear on the lobby television that a nuclear attack is taking place. Within minutes, major cities around the world are simply gone. Internet and phones are down, cutting off most means of communication. Many flee the hotel in a panic, heading anywhere else even though they are told there will be no planes and the roads are quickly filling up. Jon decides to stay where he is, along with about twenty other hotels guests and staff. Being a historian and a professor, Jon begins to keep a sort of record, marking the days since the nuclear attack.

Shortly after, Jon and two of the other men find the body of a young girl in one of the hotel’s water tanks. No one knows who she is or why she might have been murdered but Jon becomes determined to solve this mystery. At the same time, friendships and factions are forming amongst the hotel residents. They have supplies to survive for a while but not to make it through the coming winter. Tensions grow between this international group, with some blaming the American residents for the actions of their volatile president, leading to this nuclear war.

Some minor spoilers ahead:

It quickly becomes clear that the mystery of the girl’s life and death is not the main point of this novel. Jon’s focus on solving this – on caring even in the face of the end of the world and the fact that the murderer is not likely present in the hotel – is clearly a coping mechanism. Just as his attempt to record a factual account of their days. As all the residents do, Jon brings his own demons to the apocalypse and just because the world is over doesn’t mean that people can’t still be petty. While we do learn what happened to the girl, this isn’t really a story about that. It’s not really a story about a nuclear apocalypse either. Instead, I think it’s a story about what motivates people. What people will do to survive and what they will put up with. It’s about how cultures and relationships form and the meaning they can have.

Jameson creates her characters well. Each of them are deeply flawed in an absolutely realistic way. Even as the teller of his own story, Jon isn’t particularly likeable. He can’t hide his own insecurities and mistakes and we see him make both brave and selfless choices and greedy and foolish ones. Just like a real person. Several times the characters have to make decisions about right and wrong in their new world and I found these the most interesting parts of the book. When one resident of the hotel attempts to rape another, the rest have to decide how they will punish him. To exile him is to sentence him to death but to keep him imprisoned is to create a burden for the rest of them.

For me the major fumble in the plot was an attempt to introduce a sort of supernatural element. There are a few references to the hotel itself being an evil entity, perhaps having drawn each of them to be there at this particular time in history. This never really pans out and feels unnecessary. And while we do learn the truth behind the murder, it didn’t feel like it fit well with the rest of the book. I almost would have preferred to never know the truth.