Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon

 

First Line: Quill ran the snow-covered trail.

 

Ever since she saw Jimmy Sky jump off the railway bridge on the Red Pine Reservation in Minnesota, Quill hasn't stopped running. Now in training for the Boston Marathon, she's running in the woods when she hears a scream that chills her to the bone.

 

When she returns to search the area, all she finds are tire tracks and one beaded earring. Quill is filled with dread for the woman who screamed. She knows what happens to women who look like her. She also knows how fortunate she is. She has two good friends, Punk and Gaylyn, a loving husband, Crow, and two beautiful children. They all challenge her to be the best she can be. So when Quill learns that a second woman has been abducted, she knows she must do something about it.

 

As Quill closes in on the truth about the missing women, someone else disappears. When will she stop losing neighbors, friends, family? She's putting everything on the line to make a difference in this bystander culture... to do something about the long-lasting trauma of being considered invisible.

 

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Just like in Marcie Rendon's hard-hitting Cash Blackbear trilogy (Murder on the Red River, Girl Gone Missing, Sinister Graves), When They Last Saw Her gives readers an unflinching portrait of life on the reservation for Native American women. It's a life filled with danger-- especially when "man camps" for pipeline workers are built on reservation land. Even tribal police don't do their due diligence when Quill reports the heart-stopping scream she heard when out running in the woods. When more women disappear, she and fellow runners must go in groups guarded by husbands, brothers, and boyfriends in pickup trucks. 

Rendon not only paints a portrait of women living in fear, but she also shows us the loving family life Quill has with her husband, Crow, and her two young children. Quill's refusal to "let it go," to let "boys be boys," is admirable and frightening all at the same time. Readers know how easy it would be for her to disappear, too.

Readers can also learn how government policies, like the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, have changed family dynamics within the Native community. Rendon's books are poetic, life-affirming, informative, and compelling. Quill is a force of nature every bit as strong as Cash Blackbear, and I didn't want When They Last Saw Her to end. I can't wait for Rendon's next book.

Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon

eISBN: 9780593496510

Bantam Books © 2024

eBook, 272 pages

 

Amateur Sleuth, Native American Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley