Book Review: Bannerless by Carrie Vaughan

Pros: good worldbuilding, interesting characters

Cons: middling mystery, little action

Decades ago the world fell apart in a slow apocalypse. Now, those that remain live in small communities, husbanding their resources. When things go wrong that the communities can’t solve, they call in Investigators.

Enid and Thomas are Investigators from Haven. There’s been a suspicious death that might be murder. The case turns up other infractions and a man from Enid’s past.

I thought the worldbuilding was well done. As the book goes on you learn more about how people survived the slow falling apart of civilization and how they rebuilt using a new social order. I really liked the ruins and what happened there, showing that not everyone ended up living the same way.

Enid was interesting in that she liked questioning things and learning about the world but used what she found to justify their way of life instead of wondering if things could be better if done differently. This makes her a decent Investigator but I found myself not liking some of her conclusions about the world. Her underlying anger is problematic for investigations but makes her a more interesting character.

The case is mostly straight forward and while there are a few twists the resolution is what I suspected early on. There’s little to no action and I found myself getting bored towards the end.