Review of The Book of Lamps and Banners by Elizabeth Hand

She survived a serial killer on a lonely island in Maine. She escaped the cold wilds of Iceland. Britain chewed her up and spit her out. But Cass Neary lives on, on to what may be her final, unintended adventure: The Books of Lamps and Banners (2020).

As with all Cass Neary novels, The Book of Lamps and Banners picks up precisely where the prior novel left off. Neary is back and London after her escapades on the sandy, pagan shores of Cornwall. She tries to find out what happened to her former lover Quinn, still hoping to get back to the US. After a spot of convenient pickpocketing, she runs into an old acquaintance at an antiquarian book store. He has a lead on an esoteric volume sought by the most avid of collectors, and invites Neary along for the appointment. Shit hits the fan in the wake of that visit, and Neary finds herself with a torn manuscript page and a handful of neo-nazis a little too close on her heels.

What follows is both classic and singular. It's a classic Neary mystery. (Can we say that after only four novels?) Hand sticks tight to the character she has created, never betraying any bit of her story that has come in the three novels before. And yet it's a singular novel. Hand does not repeat herself. The circumstances Neary becomes involved in, while perhaps giving a nod or two to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, are fresh—or what passes for fresh in Neary's dark, vice-ridden attempt at life.

All the Neary novels feel natural, organic. Hand had a proper idea to extend Neary's tale, and developed it. None of the novels feel forced, and The Book of Lamps and Banners feels the same. That being said, it offers some finality, some indirect closure. The door is always open to more Neary novels, but one gets the sense that upon completing the story, Hand wanted to go out on a proverbial high note, to halt the series before it became routine or commercial.

In the end, regardless whether this really is the end for Neary, The Books of Lamps and Banners is an excellent continuation of the series. Hand delivers more unputdownable murder mystery goodness, no drop in quality from the three prior novels. In keeping with broader social trends (as of the time of publishing), the novel is the most political of the series. Hand utilizes contemporary cultural phenomenon, at least as of 2020, as fuel for her story, for better and worse. Regardless your views, there is no denying the power of the story and Neary as a believable character.