Audiobook Review: Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon

Murder on the Red River
Author: Marcie R. Rendon
Narrator: Siiri Scott
Series: Cash Blackbear Mysteries (Book 1)
Publication: Soho Crime (October 5, 2021); Blackstone Publishing (July 21. 2020)
Length: 220 p.; 6 hours and 3 minutes

Description: 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.

My Thoughts: The first Cash Blackbear mystery introduces a fascinating character. Renee Blackbear, nicknamed Cash, is a Native American teen who was placed in the foster care system when her mother had a car accident while drunk. She's been moved from one farm family to another all around the Moorhead area. She began working - for Cash - when she was just eleven and emancipated herself from an especially nasty foster home at the age of thirteen with the help of the local sheriff who fills the role of guardian and mentor. 

Cash's life consists of working on various farms, smoking, drinking beer, and shooting pool. Every once in a while, she gets a vision that helps Sheriff Wheaton solve a crime or two. This latest crime concerns the death of a Native man who had come down from the Leech Lake reservation to earn some cash to help his family through the winter. Her visions lead her to the reservation where she meets his wife and some of his seven kids. Snooping around in the local Fargo-Moorehead bars lets her overhear some guys talking about the guy's death. After another death, this time of a white guy, Cash overhears enough to point Sheriff Wheaton to the bad guys but not before they kidnap her and threaten to murder her.

This was a gritty sort of mystery filled with early 70s details including the pervasive prejudice against Native American and the systematic attempts to destroy Native culture. Cash is a victim of it as she spent a childhood separated from her family and in a succession of foster homes very often abusive. 

I really liked Cash. She was resilient and very bright. But she was also a loner who doesn't form attachments to anyone but Sheriff Wheaton. Without him pushing her to do something with her life beyond farm work, she's content to just drift. 

I can't wait to read more of Cash's adventures. 

I bought this one on Kindle and then added the Audible Plus audiobook. You can buy your copy here.