History Literature / TheLastPoliceman

* AnyoneCanDie: Each book sees major characters die, often violently. Given the setting, "Every Will Die," might be more accurate.

* CowboyCop: Detective McGully has some of this.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler: the killer is just trying to make money to ensure a happy, sheltered life for his son in the months before the meteor hits andtorend to murder out of terror of losing him if his drug-dealing was exposed]].

* FunctionalAddict: Detective McGully and [[spoiler: Naomi]].

* RightForTheWrongReasons: part of the reason Henry is so suspicious is because of an odd bruise Zell got the day before he died, claiming to have fallen down the stairs. In the final chapter, while he's visiting the last insurance customer that Zell met with, she tells him to watch the stairs on his way out, as Zell fell down a broken step and hurt his face when he was leaving.

* UndercoverCopReveal: [[spoiler: Jordan]] turns out to be with the FBI.

* BaldWomen: Naomi Eddes, a witness that Palace has a fling with, has started shaving her head so as not to waste time on hair maintenance in the final months.

* FingALightIntoTheFuture: a side character appearing near the end of the book is a woman preparing to launch a satellite with Earth's culture preserved on various documents and flash-drives into orbit before the meteor hits, hoping enough of humanity will survive intact to retrieve it in a few generations. [[spoiler: Peter Zell gave her a tape he made to also put onboard, but Henry chooses not to listen to it out of respect]].

* RightForTheWrongReason: part of the reason Henry is so suspicious is because of an odd bruise Zell got the day before he died, claiming to have fallen down the stairs. In the final chapter, while he's visiting the last insurance customer that Zell met with, she tells him to watch the stairs on his way out, as Zell fell down a broken step and hurt his face when he was leaving.

* HiddenElfVillage: Henry chances onto a secluded Amish farm still functioning normally in the last week before Maya hits. [[spoiler: Their patriarch has kept Maya's existence a secret from them, under a cover that the outside world is grappling with a plague.]]

* ApocalypseHow: A big focus of the trilogy is how the knowledge of the coming apocalypse affects society before Maia actually hits. A Class 3b is on the way, but the world is already at a Class 1 by the start of the first book as people deal with their despair. It reaches a Class 2 by the end of ''Countdown City.''

In an alternate 2011, a new asteroid has been discovered, named 2011GV1 or "Maia". Unfortunately it is headed straight towards us, and its impact is expected to be comparable to the global catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs. In essence, TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt has arrived. In the midst of this is Concord, New Hampshire police Detective, Henry Palace, known to friends as Hank or sometimes Hen. Palace is a recent promotion from uniformed service and takes his job very seriously. With humanity's time on the planet reduced to a few remaining months, he has his work cut out for him convincing anyone that his cases matter.

In 2013's ''Countdown City'', Palace has been downsized from the police force, along with the rest of the detectives. Nonetheless he takes a case for Martha Cavatone, a former babysitter who helped raise him and his sister Nico, agreeing to help find Martha's husband Brett.

* ColonyDrop: The ApocalypseHow of this particular armageddon.

* JustBeforeTheEnd: A few months left in this book. Naturally the time frame shrinks in the two sequels.

* OffTheWagon: Peter Zell, the victim, got into drugs for awhile, and this caused recovering heroin addict Naomi Eddes to relapse as well.
* PoliceProcedural: In a mid-size city at the end of the world.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [=McGully=] warns Culverson and Palace that they should get out of Concord now, before the water runs out.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Palace finds out who killed his sister and makes peace with them, but him along with most of rest of the world, will die when Maia strikes the Earth the next day]]

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler: Astronaut,]] a career criminal, cult leader, and psychopath.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: [=McGully=] warns Culverson and Palace that they should get out of Concord now, before the water runs out.

* Foreshadowing: McGully warns Culverson and Palace that they should get out of Concord now, before the water runs out.

* AnyoneCanDie: Each book sees major characters die, often violently. Given the setting "Every Will Die," might be more accurate.

* SuicidePact: Subverted. While it initially looks like [[spoiler: Nico's friends]] have committed mass suicide, it's revealed that they were tricked into drinking poison by [[spoiler: Astronaut]].

* MistakenForCheating: One of the reasons Brett took off was because it looked like Martha had started up with one of her exes. [[spoiler: This is a ruse by their coworker Jeremy, who wants Martha for himself. even writing a fake note to make it look like she was cheating on Brett]]

* CultColony: A small one located in the underbasement of a small Ohio town's police department.

* SuicidePact: [[spoiler: Astronaut pressures all the other cultists to commit suicide by poison, although he's planning to survive and have all the resources for himself. Nico was murdered because she wouldn't go along with this.]]

* ApocalypseLog: Palace finds one early in the book, written by Rotary, Ohio's only detective. It stretches from roughly the time of the first book (when electronic record keeping became unreliable) until 16 weeks previous. It details the collapse of the town police department and ultimately the town itself. The place is a ghost town by the time Palace arrives.

* NextSundayAD: You don't have even the slight technological advances associated with TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. If anything there's the opposite.

* UndercoverCopReveal: [[spoiler: Jordan]] turns out to be with the FBI.

In an undated but apparently very near future, a new asteroid has been discovered, named 2011GV1 or "Maia". Unfortunately it is headed straight towards us, and its impact is expected to be comparable to the global catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs. In essence, TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt has arrived. In the midst of this is Concord, New Hampshire police Detective, Henry Palace, known to friends as Hank or sometimes Hen. Palace is a recent promotion from uniformed service and takes his job very seriously. With humanity's time on the planet reduced to a few remaining months, he has his work cut out for him convincing anyone that his cases matter.

* MistakenForCheating: One of the reasons Brett took off was because it looked like Martha had started up with one of her exes. [[spoiler: This is a ruse by their coworker Jeremy, who wants Martha for himself.]]

* RetailRiot: Happens on a grand scale when the water is shut off.

* DudeWheresMyRespect: Fighting past official indifference and doubt that there's a case here, Palace both proves the apparent suicide was a murder and catches the culprit. [[spoiler: He and the rest of the detectives are immediately let go when the Justice Department takes over the Concord PD.

* MurderTheHypoteneuse: [[spoiler: Jeremy shoots Brett dead to make sure he won't return to Martha.]]

In 2014's ''World of Trouble'', Palace is living in Massachusetts, in a house with other retired police from Concord. He leaves for Ohio to find his sister, and in the last days before impact makes other horrifying discoveries.

In an undated but apparently very near future, a new asteroid has been discovered, named 2011GV1 or "Maia". Unfortunately it is headed straight towards us, and its impact is expected to be comparable to the global catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs. In essence, TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt has arrived. In the midst of this is a police Detective, Henry Palace, known to friends as Hank or sometimes Hen. Palace is a recent promotion from uniformed service and takes his job very seriously. With humanity's time on the planet reduced to a few remaining months, he has his work cut out for him convincing anyone that his cases matter.