A review by myriadreads
Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn

5.0

I absolutely loved this genre-bending murder mystery set in a post-apocalyptic future. Vaughn expertly layers a tightly plotted mystery with the world building and atmosphere of the best speculative/post-apocalyptic novels. In the area once known as California, the Coast Road cities share a cooperative system that includes population control and resource quotas. People live in households of cooperating adults, and must earn the right to have a child by demonstrating that they have the resources to care for one. Enid is a novice investigator in this world that no longer has the forensic technology that we count on now. Interviews and observation carry a lot of weight. Generally, investigators mediate disputes over resources, or investigate charges of surpluses or hoarding. Murder is rare. In this novel of the Coast Road, a suspicious death has occurred, and it is up to Enid and her longtime friend and investigative partner to determine what happened. As in the best post-apocalyptic, the details of the world after the fall emerge slowly, organic to the story, rather than in a front-loaded "this is the world we live in now" narrative. Slowly finding out bits of what happened, seeing ancient technology, seeing how people move forward--these are the elements that bring me back over and over to post-apocalyptic fiction. Shifting the focus of the plot to a specific event, a mystery, and then solving that mystery was a brilliant way to focus in on the action of the characters while letting the world load in the background. I immediately started the second Bannerless book, The Wild Dead, and I'm finding it just as immersive as the first. I have a feeling I'll finish that book still wanting more.