Review by Deborah Locke
One characteristic of a gifted writer is the ability to present a character who is so compelling, so believable, that you can’t wait to learn where she ventures next. “Broken Fields,” (Soho Press, 2025) — Marcie Rendon’s fourth book in the Cash Blackbear mystery series — delivers a fast-paced plot set in the Minnesota Red River Valley that also sheds light on the mistreatment of American Indian children in the foster care system.
Rendon (White Earth Ojibwe) is good at that: weaving truth into fiction so by book’s end, the reader is left with a satisfying conclusion and with wisdom, this time about a broken public service system that exploits and harms children.
The story opens with springtime in the fertile Red River Valley where Cash works long hours on a tractor for a local farmer, preparing soil for planting. At day’s end, she finds the farm owner dead from a bullet wound in a rented farmhouse. Upstairs in the home a small American Indian girl, Shawnee, hides under a bed, traumatized.
Cash reports the murder to Sheriff David Wheaton, a caring mentor who has long recognized Cash’s intellect and investigative talent. He hires Cash as his assistant and the two collaborate to learn who shot farm owner Bud Borgerud and the whereabouts of Shawnee’s parents who rented the home where Borgerud was found.
Shawnee is placed in foster care with the widow of the murdered man, an arrangement that Cash despises. Later when Cash questions the little girl on the care she is given, the reader gains insight into the years of foster care that Cash survived as a girl. The account is a condemnation of the forced unpaid labor and abuse some Indian children withstood as vulnerable wards of the state.
With intent and purpose, Cash works the case with Wheaton to limit the time Shawnee spends in foster care and find the shooter. Cash has an advantage as a sleuth: a magical ability to leave her body and rise above the action for an overview of events. She gets what Wheaton describes as “feelings” that often steer the two toward the resolution of a case.
In “Broken Fields,” Cash consults with Jonesy, an elderly woman with mysterious gifts who lives deep in the woods. Jonesy knows before anyone that Shawnee’s mother is alive and looking for her daughter and that Shawnee’s father is not in a good place. Jonesy is a fascinating character. I hope Rendon draws her out further in future books.
Rendon does give the reader more backstory about Cash. With each book, we learn more about why the character smokes and drinks too much, why she’s such a loner, why she takes no abuse from men who taunt her. The only time Cash eats a decent meal is when Wheaton buys her a sandwich at a local restaurant. She spends way too much time at a local bar drinking beer. At one point, a bartender cuts her off. Maybe that is why I look forward to these books so much. What makes Cash tick? Like most successful mystery writers, Rendon drops clues bit by bit, no more.
Rendon also includes lovely descriptions of the rich, fertile farmland of the Minnesota Red River Valley, and how the land and the farmers fed the world in the 1970s. Maybe they still do. You also feel a real respect for the intense labor required to work the soil and bring in crops. These are hard scrabble, no nonsense people.
So far, I’ve given you a pretty good sense of the story without big spoilers. Here’s a couple little spoilers. Expect a bank robbery with an unexpected twist. Prepare for a bar fight where a pool cue stick takes a starring role.
Most of all, note how carefully and well Rendon ties up details at the end, leading to a satisfactory resolution of this exceptional story.
Marcie Rendon, is one of The Oprah Magazine’s “31 Native American Authors to Read Right Now.” 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. Her second novel, “Girl Gone Missing,” was nominated for the Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award. She lives in Minneapolis.
