What should one do, what is worth doing, when the entire world as you know it is ending in six months? Winters’ science fiction mystery story, the first of a trilogy, asks this existential question, with the following scenario: an asteroid four miles wide has been determined to be on a collision course with Earth. People are reacting as one may guess: some continue their work as always, some are pursuing “bucket list” activities and trips, and many are committing suicide. In New Hampshire, where our protagonist Harry Palace lives and works as a police detective, he must respond to “hangers”, suicides by hanging, usually in closets or off doorknobs. Harry meets his existential crisis when he responds to a hanger that he intuits is murder. Should this be investigated and brought to justice, when everyone is likely to die in mere months?

Harry Palace is motivated to solve mysteries and bring about justice, probably due to the death of his mother in a murder as a result of a robbery in a store parking lot when he was a boy. It seemed unbelievable that she would die in this arbitrary manner, after working for many years at the front desk of Concord’s police station, seemingly closer to danger there, and beloved by all she worked with. Harry meets Detective Culverson, the investigator in his mother’s case. Culverson respects Harry’s determination in bringing justice to the perpetrator, which was more than his father could accomplish. Professor Palace, Harry’s father, hanged himself upon resolution of the crime.

Palace, a novice to detecting, is determined to have his superiors see that this was murder, not suicide. Detective Culverson, now his colleague, is instrumental in supporting Palace’s view and allowing the investigation to proceed. Harry steps carefully through police procedure, misstepping on occasion and kicking himself for taking too long to solve this, possibly causing an unnecessary death. A secondary plot involving Palace’s sister Nico, who has manipulated both her brother and husband, in an effort to determine whether the government is building a lunar colony. It appears that Nico’s story will figure important in the next novel. Palace has been granted early retirement, as the federal government has taken over law enforcement, eliminating the need for a local detective.

In the epilogue, we learn that the asteroid will directly hit Indonesia, increasing the possibility of survival on the east coast of the United States. In fact, none of us knows when we are to die, so we are all somewhat in the same position as those in Winter’s story. Why bring justice in any situation, since none of us knows when or how we are to die?