Murder on the Red River
Ratings6
Average rating4
15
Ratings6
Average rating4
Cash and Sheriff Wheaton make for a strange partnership. He pulled her from her mother's wrecked car when she was 3. He's kept an eye out for her ever since. It's a tough place to live - northern Minnesota along the Red River. Cash navigated through foster homes, and at 13 was working farms. She's tough as nails, 5 feet, 2 inches, blue jeans, blue jean jacket, smokes Marlboros, drinks Bud Longnecks. Makes her living driving truck. Playing pool on the side.
Wheaton is big lawman type. Maybe Scandinavian stock, but darker skin than most. He wants her to take hold of her life. Get into junior college. So there they are, staring at the dead Indian lying in the field. Soon Cash was dreaming the dead man's cheap house on the Red Lake Reservation, mother and kids waiting. She has that kind of power. That's the place to start looking. There's a long and dangerous way to go to find the men who killed him. Plus there's Jim, the married white guy. And Long Braids, the Indian guy headed for Minneapolis to join the American Indian Movement.
Featured Series
1 primary bookCash Blackbear Mysteries is a 1-book series first released in 2017 with contributions by Marcie R. Rendon. The next book is scheduled for release on 3/4/2025.
Reviews with the most likes.
Really enjoyed this novella. Set in the same part of northern Minnesota that my mom grew up in, the names of small towns and bigger cities were immediately recognizable to me as places we drove past/through on my way to visit my grandparents. Knowing her seemingly idyllic chidlhood took place in the same part of the state that was forcibly removing indiginous kids from their homes and sending them to boarding schools or white foster families makes the story of Cash more immediate and powerful for me. This is a murder mystery, of course, but it is also clearly setting the stage for something deeper - the story of a young indiginous woman, brutalized by the system, trying to decide what she is going to make of her life. It can be tough to read - Cash lives a hard life, and resorts to many destructive numbing behavoirs. But it is impossible not to root for this brash, imepetuous, smart, reckless young woman. I am excited to see this series progess, and will definitely be reading more.
