The Wild Dead

It has been a year since Enid of Haven solved a murder on the Coast Road (recounted in the Philip K. Dick Award-winning Bannerless). Now, with new partner Teeg, she is brought in to settle a dispute over a household's building. It is here, at the far edge of what is left of rebuilt civilization, that a body is discovered nearby. The victim is one of the wild folk, people who have created camps outside of the Coast Road communities. Old prejudices arise as Enid insists on investigating the murder of a young woman who is not one of their own. With an upcoming birth in her own home, Enid knows that this girl was once someone's valued child. Vaughn's sequel continues the exploration of a postapocalyptic American landscape that is at once beautiful and stark, filled with those who may be able to escape their ancestors' mistakes but not their own arrogance.