Tag Archives: mystery

Murder On The Red River by Marcie R. Rendon

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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.

Marcie Rendon W.ebsite

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.

Granny’s On Sale But The Dentist Isn’t

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I had to go to the dentist yesterday and have a tooth pulled. I actually needed two teeth pulled, one on each side if my mouth,  but I opted for the right side of my mouth to be tampered with first. It was the tooth that was in the most pieces.

I have a fear of the dentist that goes back to my childhood. An ungraceful badmitten racket swing by a friend took out my two front teeth. I moved forward to get the birdie while they moved backward. Amazingly enough it was a perfect swing catching just my teeth but not my mouth.

My summer beginning my eighth grade year in school was spent in the dentist office. There was no soft music, gentle touch or pain free dental equipment, nor was there a dentist with steady hands. The fear fueled by those memories lasted a lifetime.

New technology and gentle hands by both the technicians and the dentist now make a visit to their offices as pain free as possible. My tooth is out and I am making plans to go back for the next removal. My fear is subsiding and I found my fear was worse than the visit. 

In honor of my return to the dentist and my happiness of the arrival of spring I am offering my Kindle Cozy Mysteries in the Fuchsia series on sale March 29 and March 30. Since a dentist plays a big part in “Granny Pins A Pilferer” it seems fitting I do this. Here is the link Fuchsia Series Sale

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​Fuchsia Series Sale

Whatchamacallit? Thingamajig? and Snicklefritz?

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final coverkindlehalfcoverI get so busy promoting my Fuchsia Minnesota and Brilliant Minnesota Series books that I have neglected my children’s series that I self-published. There is a little bit of a story behind these books. Whatchamacallit Thingamajig was actually the first book I wrote with my grandchildren when they were younger. I wanted to leave them something to remember me by, and what better than a mystery involving them and giving them a little glimpse into Grandma’s life when she was young.

Although I call it a children’s book it also is a great short book for adults to remember their youth, and promote showing their grandchildren who they were before the wrinkles.

As an adult and a grandmother we strive to be good role models for our grandchildren. We are not perfect and we had a life before children and grandchildren. We had fun, we made mistakes, and they all shaped us into who we are today. Much of the time we only share that which we feel will make us look good in our grandchildren’s eyes. We don’t share the fact that we almost burned down the barn because we were playing with matches in the hayloft. I had simple activities in my youth that children in this era don’t have. I also wanted to share that with my grandchildren.

I wanted to remind our adult self to keep the child inside of  us and let it out once in  awhile so life doesn’t get too heavy for us. Are these my best written books, absolutely not. They were my first, but they are meaningful to me because the kids played out the mystery acting out the pictures giving me feedback and ideas throughout the way.

Read them if you like, give them as a gift or don’t. I wanted you to know they are out there, they were written with heart and I am proud of them and my grandchildren. They are available in both Kindle and paperback.  And starting on September 2, they are both .99 as a Kindle download.

Maggie interviewr