Sinister Graves offers in-depth character

Writers and Writing

Marcie R. Rendon reprises her fascinating character Cash Blackbear in Sinister Graves, third in a trilogy about a young Native woman whose special powers make her an invaluable sleuth for the local county sheriff. The trilogy follows Blackbear’s exploits in North Dakota and Minnesota along the Red River region.

Rendon, an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, lives in Minneapolis.

In her latest book of the trilogy, Cash is called by Sheriff Wheaton for her assistance in solving a murder. At first glance, Cash would hardly seem an unlikely partner in solving crime. Product of an abusive foster system, Cash shatters the stereotype of a helpless female. A pool shark approaching the professional level, she has a take-him-or-leave-him approach to men, bouncing from her on-again off-again married lover Jim to Al, a Vietnam vet – not that Cash is free with her affections. She has merely taken on male values in a female body.

It seems though that even Cash has met her match when she begins to investigate a fundamentalist minister and his wife. She more she gets to know them, the stranger they seem, until Cash feels herself drawn into the pastor’s charismatic yet deadly charms.

The appearance of an evil apparition tied to the pastor becomes even more frightening. When Cash seeks the help of Jonesy, a Native healer woman, she begins to cope with the evil around her.

Rendon’s description at the novel’s opening is absolutely mesmerizing. She takes us directly to the flooded Red River Valley and the hardy souls that inhabit it. Her pacing rockets us from incident to incident, making this the quickest read of the series.

Rendon reaches beyond the novel, though, and shows how brutal Native boarding schools once were and how the foster care system continues to be for Native children. Only with passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 did the abuse begin to lessen.

Rendon also eloquently captures the essence of the Native spirit and humor that comes to light under the lamp of historic oppression of the Native people.

Sinister Graves goes beyond the crime genre to a rightful place in the literary genre. Rendon’s understanding of Native issues and social challenges places her in the top tier of other talented Native writers such as Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie.

This is a great book, and impossible to put down.

Michael Tidemann writes from Estherville, Iowa. His Facebook page is Author Michael Tidemann.