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A mysterious murder in a dystopian future leads a novice investigator to question what she's learned about the foundation of her population-controlled society.

Decades after economic and environmental collapse destroys much of civilization in the United States, the Coast Road region isn't just surviving but thriving by some accounts, building something new on the ruins of what came before. A culture of population control has developed in which people, organized into households, must earn the children they bear by proving they can take care of them and are awarded symbolic banners to demonstrate this privilege. In the meantime, birth control is mandatory. Enid of Haven is an Investigator, called on to mediate disputes and examine transgressions against the community. She's young for the job and hasn't yet handled a serious case. Now, though, a suspicious death requires her attention. The victim was an outcast, but might someone have taken dislike a step further and murdered him? In a world defined by the disasters that happened a century before, the past is always present. But this investigation may reveal the cracks in Enid's world and make her question what she really stands for.

Publisher: Harper Voyager
Published: 07/11/2017
Pages: 288
Weight: 0.52lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.30w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780544947306


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 05/15/2017
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2017
Publishers Weekly 05/15/2017
Booklist 06/01/2017 pg. 71

About the Author
CARRIE VAUGHN is the best-selling author of the Kitty Norville series, as well as the superhero novels Dreams of the Golden Age and After the Golden Age, the young adult novels Voices of Dragons and Steel, and the fantasy novel Discord's Apple. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.