Marcie Rendon lives in Minnesota and is a
member of the White Earth Anishinabe Nation. She is a playwright and author of
both nonfiction and fiction. She is mentioned on Oprah Magazine’s 2020
List of 31 Native American Authors To Read. Her second mystery was nominated
for the Mystery Writers of America’s 2020 Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Her first
mystery Murder on the Red River (Cinco Puntos Press, 2017) won the
Pinckley Women’s Debut Crime Novel Award in 2018 and was shortlisted for the
2018 Western Writers of America Spur Contemporary Novel Award.
Set along the
Red River, which creates the Minnesota and North Dakota border, in the early
1970s, this book is as much a story of the abuse of Native American children as
it is a conventional mystery. Renee Blackbear was taken away from her mother as
a toddler and lived in a succession of white foster homes. When she was eleven
years old her foster mother sent her to work in the crop fields. A farm laborer
she remained, shooting pool at night and on weekends for extra funds. Her
laser-like focus on earning money resulted in the nickname of Cash.
Her only
support system was the county sheriff who always looked out for her, starting
from the time he removed her from the auto her drunken mother had wrecked. When
a farm laborer is found stabbed to death in the county, the sheriff asks her if
she can learn the name of the Native American victim. Her investigation takes
her to the Red Lake Reservation, more than 100 miles north, where she finds the
dead man’s wife and children waiting for his return.
Who killed a
harmless itinerant agricultural worker and why occupies Cash’s mind when she’s
not in the wheat fields or winning pool tournaments or listening to the sheriff
try to convince her to enroll in college. The daily news broadcasts about the
Vietnam Conflict from the televisions in the bars Cash visits firmly set the
timeframe.
The shameful
practice of separating minority children from their parents did not start along
the Mexico-United States border. It went on a long time before that in
populations of Native Americans. This book relates the details of the
mistreatment and substandard education of these children while it rolls out a
competent whodunit. Especially for mystery fans looking for more ethnic diversity
in their reading.
·
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press;
First edition (April 11, 2017)
·
Language: English
·
Paperback: 208 pages
·
ISBN-10: 1941026524
· ISBN-13: 978-1941026526
Aubrey Hamilton ©2021
Aubrey Hamilton is
a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries
at night.
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