Bannerless – Carrie Vaughn

“Bannerless” is placed in a low-drama setting. Close to a century after our civilization fell, the civilization that survives is rural, very Green, conforming, and largely law-abiding and friendly. In this setting a report of a suspicious death is unusual, and two Investigators are sent. Enid, the viewpoint character, is young, and relatively inexperienced.

Investigators are seldom welcome. In the Coast-Road society, communities are meant to be self-policing, so when Investigators visit a community, there has often already been a failure. (In a case seen by a younger Enid, people failed to deal with a wife-beating neighbor because nobody wanted to make waves.)

The investigation into the suspicious death is not the focus of the story. It gives structure to Enid’s interactions with the town-folks, and enables the author to draw an engaging and nuanced picture of a society that has made a lot of good choices - but is still made up of people, and there are many ways for people to make bad choices. Enid herself appears to have made good choices, and they speak well for the society that raised her. She is also judge, jury, and sentencer, a situation with latent potential for abuse.

The book is evocative of “At Amberleaf Fair”. There is little violence, and if there is drama and politics, it is at the local level. It’s hard to do that in a book that keeps the pages turning, but Vaughn does so here.