Broken Fields

Marcie R. Rendon

Hardcover

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Cash Blackbear, a young Ojibwe woman and occasional sleuth, is back on the case after a man is found dead on a rural Minnesota farm in the next installment of the acclaimed Native crime series.

Minnesota, 1970s: It's spring in the Red River Valley and Cash Blackbear is doing fieldwork for a local farmer--until she finds him dead on the kitchen floor of the property's rented farmhouse. The tenant, a Native field laborer, and his wife are nowhere to be found, but Cash discovers their young daughter, Shawnee, cowering under a bed. The girl, a possible witness to the killing, is too terrified to speak.

In the wake of the murder, Cash can't deny her intuitive abilities: she is suspicious of the farmer's grieving widow, who offers to take in Shawnee temporarily. While Cash is scouring White Earth Reservation for Shawnee's missing mother--whom Cash wants to find before the girl is put in the foster system--another body turns up. Concerned by the escalating threat, Cash races against the clock to figure out the truth of what happened in the farmhouse.

Broken Fields is a compelling, atmospheric read woven with details of American Indian life in northern Minnesota, abusive farm labor practices and women's liberation.

Book Details

Publisher: Soho Crime
Publish Date: Mar 4th, 2025
Pages: 272
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.51in - 5.87in - 0.94in - 0.95lb
EAN: 9781641296588
Categories: • Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths• Indigenous - Mystery & Detective• Thrillers - Supernatural

About the Author

Marcie Rendon is an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, a Pinckley Prize-winning author, playwright, poet, freelance writer and community arts activist. Rendon was awarded the McKnight Distinguished Artist Award for 2020. She is a speaker on Native issues, leadership and writing. Her second novel in her Cash Blackbear mystery series, Girl Gone Missing, was nominated for the Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Rendon was recognized as a 50 over 50 Change-maker by Minneapolis AARP and Pollen in 2018. She lives in Minneapolis.

Praise for this book

Praise for Broken Fields

"Peyton Place meets Fargo in this clipped tale of misdoings in the Red River Valley . . . Rendon explor[es] the ways the deck is stacked against Cash because she's a woman, an Ojibwe, and a maverick with limited respect for white men's rules."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Rendon excels at balancing plot and character, taking time to probe Cash's psychology while orchestrating a deliciously complicated mystery for her to solve. Readers will be rapt."
--Publishers Weekly

Praise for the Cash Blackbear Mysteries

"Marcie Rendon is writing an addictive and authentically Native crime series propelled by the irresistible Cash Blackbear--a warm, sad, sharp, funny and intuitive young Ojibwe woman. I want a shelf of Cash Blackbear novels! To my delight I have a feeling that Rendon is only getting started."
--Louise Erdrich, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Night Watchman

"[A] winning 1970s-set series."
--Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review

"Like Cash's life, there's a rawness and a poetic leanness to Rendon's prose. The plot is quick with no excess, building to a confrontation that's inevitable and electrifying. Rendon's writing is quick and sharp and unflinching in its honesty . . . Haunting and truly gripping."
--Carole E. Barrowman, Star Tribune

"Marcie writes the way Anishinaabe people view the world--full of rich descriptions and layered storytelling. While confronting difficult truths about religion and the value of Indigenous lives, Marcie shares revelatory moments of Cash awakening to her own worth."
--Angeline Boulley, New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper's Daughter

"Rendon is a natural storyteller and a consummate writer . . . There isn't a protagonist in recent fiction with the bearing of Rendon's creation, and we're the better for knowing her."
―Grand Rapids Herald-Review

"The vivid writing and keen eye keep the pages turning and readers hoping for another book in this series."
―Buzzfeed

"[Rendon] is one heck of a mystery novelist. Rendon's Cash Blackbear books are gripping vehicles that tell broader stories about the historical persecution of American Indians."
--Oprah Daily