Review: Murder On The Red River by Marcie R. Rendon
About: Introducing Cash Blackbear, a young Ojibwe woman whose visions and grit help solve a brutal murder in this award-winning debut.
1970s, Red River Valley between North Dakota and Minnesota: Renee “Cash” Blackbear is 19 years old and tough as nails. She lives in Fargo, North Dakota, where she drives truck for local farmers, drinks beer, plays pool, and helps solve criminal investigations through the power of her visions. She has one friend, Sheriff Wheaton, her guardian, who helped her out of the broken foster care system.
One Saturday morning, Sheriff Wheaton is called to investigate a pile of rags in a field and finds the body of an Indian man. When Cash dreams about the dead man’s weathered house on the Red Lake Reservation, she knows that’s the place to start looking for answers. Together, Cash and Wheaton work to solve a murder that stretches across cultures in a rural community traumatized by racism, genocide, and oppression.
About The Author:
Marcie R. Rendon, citizen of the White Earth Nation, is one of O: The Oprah Magazine’s 31 Native American Authors to Read Right Now and a McKnight Distinguished Artist Award winner. Where They Last Saw Her, Penquin/Random, May 2024. Her debut novel, Murder on the Red River received the Pinckley Women’s Debut Crime Novel Award and was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Spur Award, Contemporary Novel category; and her second novel, Girl Gone Missing, was nominated for the Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Her script, Say Their Names, will be produced by Out of Hand Theater, Atlanta, GA. And her script, Sweet Revenge, had a staged reading at the Playwright Center, Mpls., MN. The creative mind of Raving Native Theater, she curated TwinCities Public Television’s Art Is…CreativeNativeResilience. Diego Vazquez and Rendon received the Loft’s Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship for work with incarcerated women.
My Review:
I can’t believe as a Minnesota writer I took this long to read a book by Minnesota author, Marcie R. Rendon. It definitely will not be my last. In fact, I have the next one in this series ordered.
From start to finish it was a mystery that held my attention, but also educated me about Indigenous Americans and the struggle they face with intolerance and bigotry still today.
Cash Blackbear is a strong character and her quest for her identity after being raised in foster homes speaks to a system that has failed young children on the reservation. This is a mystery that keeps us enthralled, teaches, and touches the heart of a reader making us all want to do better in recognizing the fact indigenous woman are at risk for violence and death. Marcie Rendon’s writing keeps that fact in the forefront along with giving us a can’t put down mystery, so we can work harder to find a solution.
The Glamorous Life of a Cozy Mystery Reviewer/Blogger
There is nothing like a real life, walk in the front door, pay at the register bookstore. I adore them! I could spend every day in one. The only thing holding me back is, my town, Dover, DE, capitol of the first state doesn’t have any bookstores. They’ve all closed down. And they were very small, without big selections. Over half of the stock of one of them was used books. (I’ll spare you my germ phobia.)
I love the wonderful pets that are featured in cozy mysteries. The adorable cats and dogs (mostly) have such big personalities. Some even have sleuthing talents just like their owners. 
Sprinkled Notes 